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HomePress RoomExternal CommentaryMax Abrahms Quoted in USA Today: How Russia Will Operate in Ukraine

Max Abrahms Quoted in USA Today: How Russia Will Operate in Ukraine

Image credit: Kremlin

IPD Senior Fellow Max Abrahms spoke to USA Today on Ukraine and Russia’s strategic thinking on conducting further operations into the country, arguing that Moscow would have carefully planned to avoid scenarios that would wrap it into a bogged-down conflict.

The following are excerpts from the original piece published on February 22, 2022.

Doomsday scenarios often speculate that Russia will try to occupy the country, topple the capital and kill tens of thousands of civilians. I do not believe that these scenarios accord with Putin’s track record… Putin is not a strategic dunce or a martyr. Even when he authorized Russian military intervention in Syria’s civil war in 2015 (credited with turning the tide in President Bashar al-Assad’s favor), he did so in a way that would not lead to a quagmire.

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