Kathrine Frich
Sometimes the sharpest players at the table eventually overplay their hand.
For years, one world leader appeared to outsmart his international rivals with swift and ruthless moves.
But a single miscalculation may have changed his country’s trajectory forever.
A critical mistake
Walter Russell Mead, a distinguished professor at the Hudson Institute in the United States, believes Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine could become the decision that permanently weakened Russia and reshaped his legacy.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal cited by Ziare, Mead questioned whether Putin would ultimately be remembered as “the man who destroyed Russia.”
According to the American academic, the Kremlin leader spent years humiliating Western governments while expanding Russian influence abroad through aggressive but calculated moves.
Ukraine resistance
But the academic said Putin fundamentally misunderstood Ukraine before launching the full-scale invasion.
“Ukraine was not a real country, he argued. Its people were not nationalists. Its government was an empty shell,” Mead wrote.
Instead, he argued, Ukrainians proved willing to fight for their country while President Volodymyr Zelensky managed to maintain international support for Kyiv throughout the war.
Russia weakened
Mead warned that even if Russia gains further territory, the cost of the war has already damaged the country economically, militarily and politically.
“The more likely outcome, a torturous stalemate that continues to drain Russia’s workforce and economic resources, threatens Putin’s power and the future of Russia itself,” he wrote.
He also argued that Russia’s international position has deteriorated in recent years, pointing to declining influence in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.
Growing crisis
According to Mead, the war has accelerated Russia’s demographic and economic problems as hundreds of thousands of military-age men have either died in combat or fled the country.
He warned that growing ethnic tensions, economic weakness and geopolitical isolation could eventually create a crisis comparable to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“If Putin’s ideology of Russian national revival proves to be a decisive failure, his successors may face difficulty holding together what is left of the empire,” Mead wrote.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Ziare.com
