With your back to the wall, you don’t also bang your head into it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely in his most precarious position yet. But as NATO meets in Ankara this week, is this the moment he chooses truly to test the alliance?
His war of choice is dragging down the Russian economy – along with his poll ratings – and is also into its fifth year. As Kyiv’s long- to mid-range bombardments continue, causing gas shortages and damage so broad that Moscow’s skyline belches black smoke, questions mount as to what Putin can do to respond to Ukraine’s new-found confidence.
Chief among them is whether he can, or will, escalate in return – against Ukraine, but also its NATO backers.
There persists a steady drumbeat of concern Russia might open a new front in Europe. Poland has reportedly been warned by the United States that Moscow might attack – in a limited fashion, perhaps with drones or another form of hybrid warfare, but still in a way that decades ago would have seemed inconceivable.
