No One Has Addressed WHY Russia Invaded Ukraine (So I’ll Do It)
There are bigger reasons at play than an insane madman flexing power
In August 2008, the geopolitical intelligence company I worked for went on red alert.
Red alerts were an internal code for “All hands on deck. Something in the world just exploded.” That day, I got to work creating maps of Russian and Georgian troop movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, separatist areas inside the country of Georgia. For the next several days, I would work late into the night reviewing analyst data and updating movements. The invasion eventually became known as the Russo-Georgian War, with the end result being that Russian troops would withdrawal from Georgia, but that Abkhazia and South Ossetia would remain Russian-occupied territories.
Georgia was a small country most people had never heard of, and jokes about Russians invading the U.S. state of Georgia abounded. At the heart of why the Russians invaded a relatively unknown country became an enigma to the populace, but within our company everyone reached the same conclusion — Russia did not want Georgia to become a NATO state.
But there was more to the puzzle. Why invade? What benefits would the Russians have in obtaining this small country?
Our Russian analysts aptly pointed out that Georgia was a former Soviet state with access to the Black Sea and major pipelines, and by joining NATO, Russia couldn’t have the influence they once did. But what they predicted became more evident during the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine; Russian President Vladimir Putin was attempting to recreate some semblance of the former Soviet Union. The goal was to create small incursions to eventually flip the former states or take them over completely.
But the reason why? Russia cannot survive without these former states. Which leads us to today — the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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