New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin remains unconcerned and unfazed by the global criticism and condemnation of his aggressive action and military operation against Ukraine.
He had already annexed Crimea in 2014 which had surprised and stunned analysts and observers.
A former intelligence officer and Director of the Russian intelligence agency KGB, Putin, now 69, is a judo black belt and has imbibed martial art’s most important qualities of aggression, surprise, unpredictability, and guile, observers say. Born in St Petersburg in 1952, Vladimir Putin started his career with the KGB. From 1990 he worked in the St Petersburg administration before moving to Moscow in 1996. By August 1999 he was Prime Minister of Russia.
He has been focused in his efforts to establish and reassert the power of his country as he had suffered from a perceived sense of being run down by the U.S.and its NATO allies.
In power since 2000, Putin has emerged as the longest serving leader in Kremlin since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Putin was re-elected for six years in 2018. A national vote, shrouded in controversy, on constitutional reforms has already bestowed upon him the opportunity to stay in power beyond his current fourth term that comes to an end in 2024. He could stay in power until 2036.
With a hardened tone, he seemed to have cared little for the sanctions and other consequences of his action and openly threatened the U.S., the EU and NATO. He believes that NATO’s expansion and its embrace of Ukrain in its fold would threaten Russia and bring NATO forces at Russia’s doorstep.
Putin has shown by his military operation that he will not retreat his steps and cares little for the global opinion which is overwhelmingly against him. It is up to the U.S. and NATO to take steps to check Putin. The world in the post-pandemic period can ill-afford a military conflict in Europe. Sense and peace must prevail.