"Russia And The Separatists Aren't On The Same Page" by P.Gregory

Paul Gregory, Member of KSE International Academic Board, Professor, University of Houston, USA gives his opinion about Russian plans for DNR and LNR in new article “Russia And The Separatists Aren’t On The Same Page” for Forbes

“Vladimir Putin’s military operations have stretched Moscow’s military to its limits. Russia has mobilized forces from all parts of the Russian Federation for its southeast Ukraine operations. As Putin shifts his attention to shoring up the Assad regime in Syria and ensuring Russia a front seat in any political settlement, he must cut back on military operations in Ukraine. His plans for a greater Russia have been thwarted, and his desire to reinsert the Donbass back into Ukraine as a spoiler requires that he turn from hot war to diplomacy, no matter what his proxies on the ground in Ukraine want. Putin’s turn to Syria could simply mean that he wants to preserve a client state in the turbulent Middle East. Or he may have dreams of a grand alliance with America and Europe to rid the world of Islamic extremism in return for recognition of his Ukraine conquests. If President Obama agrees to a one-on-one meeting at the UN, we might get a better sense for the game he is playing.“

Paul Gregory, a Hoover Institution research fellow, holds an endowed professorship in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, Texas, and is a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin.

The holder of a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, he is the author or coauthor of twelve books and many articles on economic history, the Soviet economy, transition economies, comparative economics, and economic demography.

His publications based on work in the Hoover Archives have been awarded the Hewett Book Prize and the J.M. Montias Prize for the best article in the Journal of Comparative Economics.