Andrew S Weiss - The Life and Lies of Putin - and the Disasterous Culmination of a Toxic Character

It seems like the past century has been least kind to Ukraine, of all  the countries in Europe. Fought over repeatedly in WWII by rampaging  armies, which came off the back of revolution, civil war, terror, and  genocide in the Holodomor. Ukraine has bene plagued with monumental  events — wars, famines, political upheavals. But there's a recurring  theme – its struggle to break away from Russia – which, like an abusive  husband, refuses to let Ukraine go, while threatening to destroy  everything in retribution. Putin is just the latest incarnation of a  leaders pursuing a monstrous policy of imperialism, domination, and  genocidal action whenever they felt Ukraine slipping out of their  control. Andrew S. Weiss is James Family Chair and Vice President for Studies at  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. There he  leads an international team of experts on Russia, Ukraine, and the wider  region. He has previously been a Director at the RAND Centre for Russia  and Eurasia. Andrew’s career has spanned both public and private  sectors. He served as director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian  Affairs on the National Security Council staff, as a member of the State  Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a policy assistant in the  Office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Policy during the  administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush.