The Dangers of Cornering Vladimir Putin

One of Vladimir Putin’s favorite childhood stories shows why Western leaders are worried that setbacks in Ukraine may escalate a war that has already killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

As the Russian president tells it, when he was a child he would chase rats in his apartment building in Soviet-era Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. Once he cornered a large one: It attacked him, causing him to flee in shock.