| Vladimir Putin’s biggest – and wildest – project is to resuscitate the Soviet Union in some form during his lifetime. But he has a problem: No country wants to join the Russian Federation, not even Belarus, despite its vassal status. Enlargement à la russe is what Putin is trying to do in Ukraine. The good news is that this type of enlargement doesn’t work because today, you cannot really force nations at gunpoint to become part of your empire. Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus to the west, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia to the north, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in Central Asia were all part of the Soviet Union. Now, they are sovereign countries. The German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania were all satellites of the Soviet Union. However, it wasn’t their choice – this was the result of post-World War II division, the infamous Yalta agreement. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Germany was reunited. Czechoslovakia split into Czechia and Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania recovered their sovereignty, as did Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia by leaving the Soviet Union. All integrated into the West, joining NATO first, then the EU. | 