damaging blows <\/a>to his once-ambitious plans: The 2008 Five-Day War removed Georgia permanently from the Russian orbit. The 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia\u2019s occupation of Eastern Ukraine poisoned Russian-Ukrainian relations and finally established Ukraine as a nation independent of Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead the full article here <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An article by my Hoover colleague Dr. Paul Gregory in The Hill The last thing Vladimir Putin needed is another hotspot in Russia\u2019s \u201cnear abroad\u201d \u2014 Russia\u2019s term for the 14 republics that once were part of the old Soviet Union, along with the Russian Republic. In 2014, Putin boasted of an ambitious imperial restoration project; his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3is","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11661,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/merkel-salvages-nord-stream-but-is-putin-losing-russias-gas-monopoly\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":0},"title":"Merkel Salvages Nord Stream, But Is Putin Losing Russia’s Gas Monopoly?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in Forbes The European Union took a first step with its February 8 vote towards turning Russia\u2019s gas monopoly, Gazprom, from an instrument of Russian power politics into a\u00a0regulated utility, deprived of its monopoly power.\u00a0In an odd twist, Germany, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Union"","block_context":{"text":"European Union","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/european-union\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12450,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putins-best-laid-plans-for-lifetime-rule\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":1},"title":"Putin’s best-laid plans for lifetime rule","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The following article is from my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Vladimir Putin\u00a0cannot afford to be an ex-president. Any successor will blame him for all that is wrong in Russia. There would be a mad dash to recoup (divide) his billions stashed offshore. He might even face international\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11542,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-attacks-ukraine-again-to-boost-his-popularity-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":2},"title":"Putin attacks Ukraine again to boost his popularity at home","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Over the weekend,\u00a0the Russian navy fired upon and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, wounding multiple sailors in the process.\u00a0In addition, a Russian ship has been positioned to block entrance from the Black Sea to the Sea of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vladimir Putin"","block_context":{"text":"Vladimir Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/vladimir-putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12500,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-putin-fears-the-shamans-exorcism\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":3},"title":"Why Putin Fears The Shaman’s Exorcism","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The following article is from my colleague, Paul Roderick Gregory, in The\u00a0Hoover\u00a0Institution\u00a0 Yakutia is a vast swath of permafrost in far eastern Siberia. Its capital, Yakutsk, the world\u2019s second coldest city, lies just south of the polar circle. Yakutsk was built by Gulag labor for its diamonds and gold. Its\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12795,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/russias-putin-and-navalny-collide-who-will-survive\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":4},"title":"Russia’s Putin and Navalny collide; who will survive?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An article by my Hoover colleague Dr. Paul Gregory in The Hill To understand the events of Russian dissident\u00a0Aleksei Navalny\u2019s near-fatal poisoning and his Jan. 17 return to Russia, you must know that there are two Navalnys: Navalny No. 1 is described by Kremlin-controlled media as a CIA agent, corrupt,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11077,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/overlooked-in-putins-reelection-the-kremlins-challenge-is-from-the-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":12676,"position":5},"title":"Overlooked in Putin’s Reelection: The Kremlin’s Challenge Is From The Left","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read a new essay by my Hoover colleague, Paul Gregory. 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The March 2018 election reveals that danger to the Putin regime comes from a communist left reconstituted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Paul Gregory"","block_context":{"text":"Paul Gregory","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/paul-gregory\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12680,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions\/12680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}