My grandfather had a stern warning: Never trust the Russians. In that regard, Putin has long proven himself as reliable as he is predictable.
Having spent months painting himself into a corner, Putin left himself with no option but to run roughshod over the most basic principles of the post-Second World War international rules-based order: respect for territorial integrity and political sovereignty without recourse to violent inter-state coercion to redraw boundaries. The aim of these principles has been to avoid a repeat of the human, political, economic and military calamity of the new Thirty Years’ War, 1914-1945.
