Putin’s Reality Check for Europe

by Joschka Fischer

25.03.2014 | http://www.neurope.eu/article/putin%E2%80%99s-reality-check-europe?utm_source=NEW+EUROPE+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b1ce18049c-27_mar3_27_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cafce5403e-b1ce18049c-28080685

 For far too long, the West has harbored illusions about Vladimir Putin’s Russia – illusions that have now been shattered on the Crimean peninsula. The West could (and should) have known better: Ever since his first term in office as Russian president, Putin’s strategic objective has been to rebuild Russia’s status as a global power.
To this end, Putin used Russia’s energy exports to recover gradually the territories lost when the Soviet Union collapsed a generation ago. Ukraine has been at the heart of this strategy, because, without it, the aim of a revived Russia is unachievable. So Crimea was just the first target; the next will be eastern Ukraine and persistent destabilization of the country as a whole.