Ukrainian authorities have applied a new methodology based on environmental inspection to tally a $54 billion price-tag from the Russian invasion. It’s a moment to add up the many costs of the first year of war.
Assumptions of Russian military dominance were largely based on the belief that Moscow’s military reforms since 2008 had fixed the institutional problems seen in Chechnya and Georgia.
Russia is pursuing a Middle Eastern policy designed to reduce Western influence in the Middle East, even at the risk of Islamist terrorism, a growing problem in Russia. The Obama Administration needs to convince Moscow that its disruptive policy is self-defeating.