VLADIMIR PUTIN – WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG? PART TWO In my last essay I misinformed you (impossible, I hear you cry) when I said that Litvinenko was murdered in 2000. While he legged it to England in 2000, he was actually murdered in 2006. Apologies. I would say even Homer nods, but that would be pompous and presumptuous, so I won’t.
I think you may well have a very good point. As for the Middle East, Ben Ali, Assad, Mubarak, Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein et al may have been unpleasant pieces of work, but in a way they were our unpleasant pieces of work, in that their regimes were secular and they kept their boot firmly on any sign of religious extremism. Palmerston pointed out how unwise it was to get involved in somebody else's' civil war, and I think he was right!
The fact that he and his colleagues made serious attempts to build strong relationship with the West unsuccessfully may be a key reason for the pivot post the prime ministerial innings?
As you pointed out that the reaction to having an ever expanding NATO eastwards may have influenced the Russian policymakers to focus on securing areas that give them the ability to create a buffer towards the western borders. Further, hindsight indicates that the world might have been a tad safer without a number of interventions in the Arab world starting with the Iraq chapter. The spectre of unchecked unilateralism might be the single most important factor that started this repositioning?
I think you may well have a very good point. As for the Middle East, Ben Ali, Assad, Mubarak, Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein et al may have been unpleasant pieces of work, but in a way they were our unpleasant pieces of work, in that their regimes were secular and they kept their boot firmly on any sign of religious extremism. Palmerston pointed out how unwise it was to get involved in somebody else's' civil war, and I think he was right!
The fact that he and his colleagues made serious attempts to build strong relationship with the West unsuccessfully may be a key reason for the pivot post the prime ministerial innings?
As you pointed out that the reaction to having an ever expanding NATO eastwards may have influenced the Russian policymakers to focus on securing areas that give them the ability to create a buffer towards the western borders. Further, hindsight indicates that the world might have been a tad safer without a number of interventions in the Arab world starting with the Iraq chapter. The spectre of unchecked unilateralism might be the single most important factor that started this repositioning?