Wall Street Journal (July 23)
“Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine continues as usual.” Except for instilling outlandish hopes, the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 changed nothing. “The world’s media hang on any hint of conciliation from President Putin, as if he will suddenly turn into Vlad the Peacemaker. He won’t change until he concludes that the cost of his aggression is too high to sustain. So far the costs have been minuscule, and Mr. Putin is reacting with predictable contempt.”
Tags: Aggression, Costs, Flight 17, Malaysia Airlines, Media, Putin, Shoot-down, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, War
Washington Post (June 26)
With “gestures suggesting de-escalation,” Vladimir Putin has been working to avoid additional sanctions. But “Russia’s behavior remains unacceptably provocative. Russia continues to occupy Ukrainian territory in Crimea, it has not applied its influence to end the uprising it sponsored in eastern Ukraine and it continues to deploy forces to Ukraine’s border.”
Wall Street Journal (May 26)
Populist, anti-EU candidates did well in the recent election for European Parliament. Nowhere more so than France where Marine Le Pen’s National Front party swept by both the Socialists and the Gaullists. Compared with “the milder populist advances elsewhere in the European vote, France produced a spectacle of nihilism that damages the West and delights Vladimir Putin.”
Tags: Anti-EU, Candidates, Damage, Election, European Parliament, France, Gaullists, Marine Le Pen, National Front, Nihilism, Populist, Socialists, Vladimir Putin, West
Washington Post (February 3, 2014)
Rather than marking Vladimir Putin’s crowning achievement, “the Sochi Olympics are more likely to become a forum for the demonstration of how and why Putin’s rule of Russia has failed—and how his power is ebbing both abroad and at home.”
Tags: Demonstration, Failure, Power, Russia, Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin
