Free Republic

The three major summits of world leaders that took place across Asia in the past week have made one thing clear: Vladimir Putin is now sidelined on the world stage. Putin, whose attack on Ukraine over the past nine months has devastated the European country and roiled the global economy, declined to attend any of the diplomatic gatherings – and instead found himself subject to significant censure as international opposition to his war appeared to harden. A meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in Bangkok closed on Saturday with a declaration that references nations’ stances expressed in other...

Independent political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin attributed Putin’s silence to the fact he has built a political system akin to that of the Soviet Union, in which a leader — or “vozhd” in Russian, a term used to describe Josef Stalin — by definition is incapable of making mistakes. “Putin and Putin’s system … is built in a way that all defeats are blamed on someone else: enemies, traitors, a stab in the back, global Russophobia — anything, really,” Oreshkin said. “So if he lost somewhere, first, it’s untrue, and second — it wasn’t him.” When Russia’s top military brass announced...

The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear. That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.