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They push buttons, Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale, says. What button of ours are they pushing here? What are they trying to get us to do? Vladimir Putin is gesturing toward a costly invasion of Ukraine, on the false pretext of protecting Russian-language speakers in the country. Why? In a wide-ranging conversation, Snyder talks with David Remnick about how to understand Russias aggression, the idea (advanced by Putin) that Ukraine historically and rightfully belongs to Russia, and the dictators far-reaching goal of destabilizing NATO. Snyder is the author of Bloodlands, a history of the Second World War, and also The Road to Unfreedom and On Tyrannywhich warn of the dangers that imperil American democracy. Running an oligarchy in which corruption is universal, Putin is basically stuck with spectacle, distractionsthe old bread and circuses ideabut also is working from a situation where you want to bring other countries down to your level, Snyder says. With that, you can understand their intervention in our elections or the way they talk about us: they want to bring out the elements of us, both rhetorically and in reality, that are most like the way they run the country. Putins governance of Russia and his foreign policy, in other words, are intricately entangled. I tend to think [the threat of invasion] is about the Biden Administration, in a pretty fundamental way, Snyder says. If your goal is to undermine NATOlets accept that that is their sincere goalwho do you want to be President? Trump. The crisis, he points out, puts Biden in a very bad position. Its very hard for Biden to look strong.... Insofar as there is a strategy here, its about dividing NATO members and putting pressure on the Biden Administration.

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Russias Intentions in Ukraineand America - The New Yorker