Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

In Libya, One of Putin’s Many Bets Is in Play

The Kremlin doesn’t have the luxury of choosing allies: It has to go with adventurers and risk-takers.

April 8, 2019 at 12:11 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

That was yesterday’s bet.
Photographer: AFP/AFP

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The strong pushback against General Khalifa Haftar’s bid to take the Libyan capital, Tripoli, endangers one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s risky bets. But even if Haftar loses, Putin will keep seeking similar adventurers in Libya and around the world to back.

Russia’s version of great power foreign policy these days is an exercise in the art of the possible: Take a gamble on those who are themselves willing to take a gamble on Moscow’s aggressiveness and the murky economic benefits it can offer.