Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

What Is Vladimir Putin Up To? Here's an Educated Guess

After declaring victory in Syria (again) there's a danger he may turn back to Eastern Europe.

February 18, 2018 at 1:00 PM UTC

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

Gunning for the Baltic States?
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Remember that time Vladimir Putin won the Syrian civil war?

It was the spring of 2016, and on a visit to the war-torn country, the Russian president told his troops: “I believe that the task put before the defense ministry and Russian armed forces has, on the whole, been fulfilled. With the participation of the Russian military … the Syrian armed forces and patriotic Syrian forces have been able to achieve a fundamental turnaround in the fight against international terrorism and have taken the initiative in almost all respects.”