In a world with a lot of weird ducks (including me), Jay Nordlinger still stands out as an especially unique specimen. He’s a music critic with a passion for human rights who for 2 decades has written beautifully for Bill Buckley’s conservative National Review.
RealClearWorld links to a Nordlinger piece for NR where he interviews Eliot Cohen about Putin and Ukraine. Some of Cohen’s thoughts, as paraphrased by Nordlinger:
I think of Richard Pipes — who had a dark view of Russia as a patrimonial state that has perpetually committed violent, aggressive acts. We may have a Russia problem, as well as a narrower Putin problem.
Of all the explanations for Putin’s war, the most stupid is that he has reacted to NATO expansion. As he says over and over, he does not believe that Ukraine is a nation. He believes that it belongs to Russia. Also, he is deathly afraid of a color revolution, such as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. (snip) The irony is: He’s likely to get NATO expansion as a result of his war.
The response of eastern Ukraine to the invasion has stunned many people. The nature of Ukrainian patriotism has changed in recent years. Ukraine has developed as a nation. People in Kharkiv and other Russian-speaking cities have put up as ferocious a resistance to the invasion as anybody.
Putin is not a master strategist. He is a KGB thug. He knows how to play mind games.
Political scientist Cohen is a noted never-Trumper but, as one of the preeminent Cold warriors, his views of Russian aggression are worth our attention. Russia attacking Ukraine makes Cohen an enemy of my enemy, and at least in this context an “ally for the duration.”
