#CIA #FBI #ODNI Putin’s Strategic Miscalculations in Ukraine Gemini: “Vladimir Putin, the Man Who Broke Russia” is a May 2026 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Walter Russell Mead (also a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute). The article argues that despite a decade of successfully outmaneuvering the West, Putin has severely damaged Russia’s future through massive strategic miscalculations. Here is a summary of the article’s key points: A Decade of Geopolitical Success: For over ten years, Putin successfully exploited Western weaknesses and outmaneuvered “clueless” Western leaders. He achie

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Gemini: “Vladimir Putin, the Man Who Broke Russia” is a May 2026 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Walter Russell Mead (also a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute). The article argues that despite a decade of successfully outmaneuvering the West, Putin has severely damaged Russia’s future through massive strategic miscalculations.

Here is a summary of the article’s key points:

A Decade of Geopolitical Success: For over ten years, Putin successfully exploited Western weaknesses and outmaneuvered “clueless” Western leaders. He achieved a series of strategic victories that expanded Russian influence, including the 2008 invasion of Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, the revival of Russian power in the Middle East (capitalizing on the U.S. backing down from its “red line” in Syria), propping up Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, and displacing French influence across Africa.
The Fatal Miscalculation: These ongoing successes made Putin overconfident, leading to his critical error: the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He vastly underestimated his target, falsely reasoning that Ukraine was not a real country, its people lacked true nationalism, and its government was a “hollow shell.”
Draining Russia’s Resources: Because of this misjudgment, Putin has trapped Russia in a costly and protracted stalemate in Ukraine. The article notes that this war, alongside other cascading failures, is actively draining Moscow’s resources and unraveling his long-term goal of making Russia a great power again.

In short, Mead argues that while Putin built a reputation as a geopolitical mastermind by exploiting Western hesitation, his own hubris regarding Ukraine has ultimately “broken” the very nation he sought to elevate.

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) May 6, 2026