Lies, Hubris, and Imperial Overreach: Putin's Big Mistakes in Ukraine

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a cynical, brutal and inhumane example of the discredited and obsolete principle that “might makes right.” 

In invading Ukraine, Putin plunged Europe into the worst military crisis since World War II and sank American-Russian relations to the worst depths of the Cold War period. With this obscene and grotesque invasion, Putin chooses to gamble with the future of Russia, which he has misruled and dominated for over two decades. Putin will lose this bet because his war is more than an exercise in ethical and legal nihilism—it is self-defeating. 

Putin’s aggression brought about the very outcomes he claims to be fighting against. His attempt to restore Russian power has isolated Russia diplomatically and smeared its international reputation. Putin has united the world against him—apart from his autocratic allies in China and Mar-a-Lago—while reinforcing the global community’s commitment to contain Russian expansionism.

In contrast to the disunity and ambiguities of the Trump era, Putin has revitalized and given new urgency to both NATO and the Euro-Atlantic alliance of liberal democracies. Rather than rolling back America’s military presence in the former Soviet space, Putin’s hostile policies led to increased military deployments on Russia’s western frontier.