'The NATO Show': Putin's favorite comedy?
Are words NATO`s only weapon
There will be many speeches suggesting that NATO is re-energized by Putin's threat. There will be lots of self-congratulations on the effectiveness of economic sanctions levied against the Russians. There will be talk of new mega-sanctions that will really keep them in line. But Putin will sit there watching, perhaps munching on pieces of deep fried Siberian tiger that he killed with his bare hands, as he contemplates that everything he wanted he got, and that all he wants he can get -- at a low, low price.
As a consequence, Putin can watch the NATO show and enjoy it for what it is: a diversion. The rhetoric might get heated. Some might suggest that he, for all his cool calculation and his so far effective gambits, is the mad man in this scenario. But watching the current version of this superannuated, divided, leaderless alliance, he knows that when it comes to standing up to him in Ukraine, NATO is the house of cards.
Мнението е на Дейвид Роткопф и е доста необичайно за CNN, които не са особено про-руски настроени.
David Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com. He is CEO and editor of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of "National Insecurity: U.S. Leadership in an Age of Fear," due out next month.
Are words NATO`s only weapon
There will be many speeches suggesting that NATO is re-energized by Putin's threat. There will be lots of self-congratulations on the effectiveness of economic sanctions levied against the Russians. There will be talk of new mega-sanctions that will really keep them in line. But Putin will sit there watching, perhaps munching on pieces of deep fried Siberian tiger that he killed with his bare hands, as he contemplates that everything he wanted he got, and that all he wants he can get -- at a low, low price.
As a consequence, Putin can watch the NATO show and enjoy it for what it is: a diversion. The rhetoric might get heated. Some might suggest that he, for all his cool calculation and his so far effective gambits, is the mad man in this scenario. But watching the current version of this superannuated, divided, leaderless alliance, he knows that when it comes to standing up to him in Ukraine, NATO is the house of cards.
Мнението е на Дейвид Роткопф и е доста необичайно за CNN, които не са особено про-руски настроени.
David Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com. He is CEO and editor of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of "National Insecurity: U.S. Leadership in an Age of Fear," due out next month.
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