“Putin changed when I was president. Early on, Russia was broke and he wanted help, and I thought he was going to promote a civil society that enabled people to have a big say in their government. When the price of oil went up, Putin began to change.”
Those are the words of George W. Bush. They’re from a 2017 interview with American Way magazine. The sad thing for Bush, Republicans and Democrats, and the foreign policy establishment more broadly, is that none have been able to put two-and-two together about the why behind the evolution of Vladimir Putin from paper strongman in control of a broke nation, to territorial aggressor positioned to ignore the warnings of the West.
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