Because he believes that the United States dominates its own region by force, he thinks Russia has the same right. He is sure that Americans mirror both his cynicism and his lust for power and that in a world where everyone lies, he is under no obligation to tell the truth. Like other authoritarians, he equates his own well-being with that of the nation and opposition with treason. He has collected political and economic power for himself - co-opting or crushing potential competition - while pushing to re-establish a sphere of Russian dominance through parts of the former Soviet Union. Putin has charted his course by ditching democratic development for Stalin’s playbook. Should he invade, it will be a historic error. Most disturbing to me: It was his attempt to establish the pretext for a full-scale invasion. Putin’s revisionist and absurd assertion that Ukraine was “ entirely created by Russia” and effectively robbed from the Russian empire is fully in keeping with his warped worldview. After calling Ukrainian statehood a fiction in a bizarre televised address, he issued a decree recognizing the independence of two separatist-held regions in Ukraine and sending troops there. Putin as he has massed troops on the border with neighboring Ukraine. I have been reminded in recent months of that nearly three-hour session with Mr. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.” “Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. Putin spoke unemotionally and without notes about his determination to resurrect Russia’s economy and quash Chechen rebels. Yeltsin had cajoled, blustered and flattered, Mr. Putin and his bombastic predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Sitting across a small table from him in the Kremlin, I was immediately struck by the contrast between Mr. ![]() I hoped the meeting would help me take the measure of the man and assess what his sudden elevation might mean for U.S.-Russia relations, which had deteriorated amid the war in Chechnya. We in the Clinton administration did not know much about him at the time - just that he had started his career in the K.G.B. official to meet with Vladimir Putin in his new capacity as acting president of Russia. In early 2000, I became the first senior U.S. This was her final piece for Times Opinion, published Feb. Update: Madeleine Albright died on Wednesday, March 23 in Washington.
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