“The person who will have the last word is Putin. In a week when the world wants to cheer on the valiant Belarusians struggling for liberty, this is painful to admit. But not doing so would be self-deception” writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Andreas Kluth.
“Putin has long been driven by two things: increasing his own personal power and reassembling the ‘Russian world’ that was lost when the Soviet Union broke up, which he considers “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” From his point of view, the West — embodied in NATO and the EU — has been steadily encroaching on Russia’s sphere of influence and must be pushed back. That’s why he’s been the enemy of all ‘color revolutions’ in post-Soviet states, starting with Georgia’s in 2003. He can’t afford to allow eastern Europe or the South Caucasus to become democratic, free, prosperous and pro-European, for that would undermine Russia’s — meaning his — claim to ‘Eurasian’ leadership… It’s simply implausible that Putin would stand idly by as Belarus tries to become democratic and free. He sees its language, culture and identity — like Ukraine’s — as a poor relation of Russia’s. And he has a keen historical sense of needing Belarus as a buffer to western Europe — both Napoleon and Hitler went through it to invade Russia.”