Former CIA officer Sean Wiswesser spent decades in the intelligence world studying Russia, and he says one conversation with a Russian intelligence officer more than 20 years ago explains the mentality better than almost anything else.
This was during a period when relations appeared to be improving.
Bush and Putin were talking; America and Russia had a common enemy in Islamist terrorism, so Sean asked whether this could finally change the relationship between the two countries.
The Russian intelligence officer laughed: You were the main enemy during the Cold War, you're the main enemy now, and you'll always be the main enemy.
That's the lens through which Sean believes we need to understand Putin.
Not as a communist trying to resurrect the Soviet economic system, but as a KGB man who wants to restore the power, status and sphere of influence Russia lost when the Soviet Union collapsed; and that makes Ukraine part of something much bigger.
Sean argues that Putin doesn't simply see himself fighting Kyiv; Russian propaganda already presents the conflict as a war against America and NATO.
And if Russia ultimately gets what it wants in Ukraine, Sean doesn't believe Putin will simply declare victory and go home.
@Wiswesser @wethebrandon
