The Russian invasion of Ukraine has claimed hundreds of lives on the battlefield and in the Ukrainian cities being bombed. But internationally, it also affects everything from food security in Cairo to gas prices in California. It has pushed forward major geopolitical shifts and changed the way some of the world’s preeminent institutions operate.
Here’s how the world has changed in the 10 days since the war returned to Europe.
A changing world order
The invasion of Ukraine did not herald a new era of great power politics. It was the violent exclamation point that confirmed one of the most significant changes in the geopolitical world order since 9/11.
In the years that followed, global terrorism took a lot of attention from Western leaders. Al Qaeda and ISIS were the enemies to be fought. The Kremlin was no longer seen as the same threat it once was — so much so that in 2012 President Barack Obama laughed at then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney for calling Russia the United States’ number one geopolitical enemy.
By then, Putin had already shown that he was eager to rethink the post-Cold War order.
The former KGB intelligence officer took office in 2000 and vowed to restore Russia’s former glory, sometimes by military force. As prime minister, in 1999 he launched an offensive in the Russian republic of Chechnya against separatist guerrillas. In 2008, the Kremlin invaded Georgia and recognized two breakaway republics in the country, which was then growing closer to Europe.
Later, Putin’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – ostensibly as an ally in the war on terror – did him no favors with Western democracies, not least because of credible reports of the Syrian dictator’s decision to to attack its own people with chemical weapons. Putin’s decision to annex Crimea in 2014 and send back the separatists in eastern Ukraine led to sanctions and was roundly condemned. So were Russia’s alleged attempts to assassinate its enemies on foreign soil.
But Putin remained a key player and partner, albeit an unsavory one, for leaders from Washington to Warsaw throughout the 2010s. Russia was an important factor in the fight against ISIS; Europe’s leading energy supplier; and helped negotiate key diplomatic pacts such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Last week’s invasion may have put an end to that. After a quarter of a century of the western world dealing with Putin, he may have finally pushed the boundaries and become a pariah.
In response, the Western world has hit Russia with unprecedented sanctions that have paralyzed financial institutions, sent the economy and the ruble into a tailspin, and even personally attacked Putin and part of his inner circle.
“Putin is now more isolated from the world than ever before,” US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
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