Vladimir Putin praises Emmanuel Macron as leaders meet in Moscow

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“We’ll have to do something, or we’ll lose it,” Vladimir Putin reportedly fretted to Kremlin aides when asked about Ukraine after he became president.

His attempts to grapple with that dilemma have produced some of the most dramatic moments in his two decades in power, including multiple diplomatic crises, two revolutions, and a war that has claimed at least 14,000 lives.

Now it has prompted him to amass the biggest invasion force seen in Europe since the Second World War.

What is driving him to such enormous risks? And why, despite all his efforts, is Ukraine further from his grasp than when he first worried about losing it?

Depending who you listen to, he is an ethnic nationalist gathering the Russian lands. A KGB man determined to rebuild his beloved Soviet Union. Or simply another ruler of Moscow, like many before him, seeking security in strategic depth at the expense of his western neighbors.

There is a little bit of truth to all those claims.

Read the full story from Roland Oliphant here

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