Putin is ’short sighted’, claims expert amid Ukraine conflict

  • 2014-08-25
  • From wire reports, RIGA

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pic: twitter)

"Russia's goals are actually very short-sighted," believes the former head of the Latvian Constitutional Protection Bureau, Janis Kazocins.

He said in an interview with the LNT show 900 sekundes that Russia is unable to achieve its goals the way it had planned - to draw Ukraine closer to Russia and ensure that it cooperate with the Eurasian Union. However, the current situation indicates that this will be impossible for at least another generation.

However, he admitted that Crimea's occupation was a well-planned and a brilliantly executed operation. Russia later tried to carry out the same strategy  in eastern Ukraine but failed.

"Now Russian President Vladimir Putin finds himself in a very sore situation. He cannot back off from what he has started, whereas Russian citizens are beginning to show less support for the war in Ukraine," said Kazocins.

Kazocins added the seemingly popular belief that NATO is guilty of Russia's incursion in Ukraine, as it was allegedly provoked by NATO and European Union's expansion, is unfounded.

No country has the right to tell another nation that it cannot pursue its own political goals and choose democratic development.