“The conventional wisdom in the United States is that this is not a balance of power policy and that Putin is an imperialist interested in conquering Ukraine to make it part of a larger Russia.
I don't think so.
I do not think that he had or has imperial ambitions.
He is motivated by the fear that Ukraine will become part of NATO, ”the magazine writes, citing a political scientist.
Mearsheimer notes that there is no evidence that the Russian president "had imperial ambitions" before the start of the special operation in Ukraine.
“Putin, like all his aides, has made it very clear that their biggest fear is that Ukraine will become a Western stronghold on Russia’s borders.
For them, it was an existential threat.
It was simply unacceptable, ”said the scientist.
Retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis has previously linked the conflict in Ukraine to Western arrogance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's unwillingness to make informed decisions.
As noted in the Kremlin, Putin, in his speech in Munich in 2007, raised the question of NATO moving closer to Russian borders, to which the answer has not yet been received.