Romper o Cerco

a Rússia de Putin e a Nova Guerra Fria

Abstract

This article purports to trace Vladimir Putin’s emergence as an uncompromising adversary of the West. Led by Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s traumatic post-communist transition of the 1990s created the conditions for the Kremlin to define a foreign policy in opposition to the Western allies. Believing itself to be encircled as a result of NATO and European Union enlargement, Moscow adopted an increasingly confrontational posture, eventually leading to military interventions in Georgia and Ukraine. In short, Russian assertiveness has provoked a new Cold War. The article traces this process and concludes that geopolitical competition with Russia is now a structural feature of contemporary international politics.