Washington and the West struggle for a way forward with Putin’s Russia

Putin has repeatedly sought to amplify Western fears. He recently spelled out plans to revise Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which currently states that Russia would use nuclear weapons only in retaliation against a nuclear attack, or if its existence were threatened.

Meanwhile, he allegedly continues to order or sponsor a variety of attacks on the West, including brazen sabotage operations, assassinations, election interference and disinformation — highlighting the seriousness of the Russian threat, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council who is now director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

“In many ways he’s pushing forward even while the war in Ukraine continues, certainly with this really sizable uptick in Russia’s nonconventional and hybrid tactics in Europe,” Kendall-Taylor said in an interview.

“That’s just another approach to destabilizing NATO and the E.U., short of conventional force,” she said, adding: “And I do I think that is what Putin is trying to accomplish. He is really intent on undermining NATO and the E.U., and he is going to use any tool or any tactic that he can to advance that objective.”

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