Vladimir Putin is a product of the Cold War. Russia’s president made his career in the old Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, and he viewed the superpower rivalry and nuclear stalemate fondly, at least in some respects: after taking office in 2000, he famously called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “genuine tragedy” and “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the twentieth century. Yet in the context of the current crisis over Ukraine, it is far from clear that Putin has seriously studied the history of the Cold War or comprehended its lessons.
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