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“‘What is sure to be a bloody and catastrophic war will drain Russian resources and cost Russian lives — while creating an urgent incentive for Europe to slash its dangerous reliance on Russian energy. (That has already begun with Germany’s move to halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.)’”
That’s former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright weighing in on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s moves on Ukraine.
Her view came in a New York Times opinion column headlined “Putin is making a historic mistake.”
An invasion of Ukraine won’t be “paving Russia’s path to greatness,” but instead looks set to “ensure Mr. Putin’s infamy by leaving his country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable in the face of a stronger, more united Western alliance,” wrote Albright, who served as secretary of state during the Clinton administration.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright attends a security conference in Munich, Germany, in February 2020.
Getty Images
She suggested NATO is almost certain to “significantly reinforce its eastern flank and to consider permanently stationing forces in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania,” adding that President Joe Biden on Tuesday had said he was moving more troops to the Baltics.
Albright, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, expects “fierce Ukrainian armed resistance, with strong support from the West,” along with bipartisan legislation that “would include intensifying lethal aid to Ukraine.”
Related: Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspends German certification of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia
She doesn’t see “a repeat of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014,” but rather “a scenario reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.”
ADOW,
were plunging Thursday, and oil prices
CL00,
soared, as traders reacted to Putin’s decision to undertake a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
