The likelihood that Europe balks at a resumption of the Cold War is high.
Authored by Scott Ritter: As
the Russian invasion of Ukraine goes on, the world wonders what the
reason was behind such a precipitous act. The pro-Ukraine crowd has put
forth a narrative constructed around the self-supporting themes of irrationality on the part of a Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his post-Cold War fantasies of resurrecting the former Soviet Union.This narrative ignores that, far from acting on a whim, the Russian president is working from a playbook that he initiated as far back as 2007,
when he addressed the Munich Security Conference and warned the
assembled leadership of Europe of the need for a new security framework
to replace existing unitary system currently in place, built as it was
around a trans-Atlantic alliance (NATO) led by the United States.
Moreover,
far from seeking the reconstitution of the former Soviet Union, Putin
is simply pursuing a post-Cold War system which protects the interests
and security of the Russian people, including those who, through no
fault of their own, found themselves residing outside the borders of
Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.