Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 103

RUSSIA AS THREAT

prestige by reconstituting and extending the Russian
empire over its former territories. For example, in
a speech to the Russian Duma (Parliament) in June
2014, he invoked as justification for renewed Russian
expansionism the legacy of Vladimir the Great—
the prince of Kiev who established Christianity in
Russia. Putin then signed a treaty that formalized
the Russian annexation of Crimea, the land where
Putin’s own ancestor was baptized in the year 988.3
Another manifestation of Putin’s restive Kremlin has
been its increasing proclivity to aggressively challenge U.S. political influence on many fronts globally.
How does this pugnacious, nationalistic attitude play among the Russian people? Reliable polls
show a depth of popular Russian support for Putin’s
convictions and supporting actions that are nothing
if not ominous. In recent months, Putin’s popularity ratings, as measured by Pew Global Attitudes
Polling, have soared to 83 percent—a four-year
high—after a lingering period of disenchantment

with Putin following his presidential electoral victory
in 2012.4
This stands in stark contrast to perceptions of
Putin among Western leaders that are uniformly
negative. Putin’s aggression against the nominally
independent Ukraine occasioned widespread outrage
and condemnation in the West. In a display of protest
and disapproval, the Obama administration quickly
imposed economic and banking sanctions against
Russia.5 The European Union followed suit and even
threatened to cancel the $20 billion South Stream
pipeline, intended to export natural gas from Russia
to Europe while bypassing Ukraine.6
At the time of this article’s publication, none of
these measures have had the effect apparently intended by the West on either Putin or the attitudes of
the Russian people, mainly because Western Europe
needs Russian natural gas. Quite the opposite, disapproval from the West, and the ineffectiveness of
measures taken against Russia by the West, to protest

(AP photo by Rex Features)

A man displays t-shirts featuring President Vladimir Putin at a market in Varna, Bulgaria, 16 September 2014. With the annexation of the
Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the t-shirts became very popular in the Balkan country where 300,000 Russian citizens live permanently.
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