Putin Is Keeping the West Guessing and That’s Just Fine With Him
The Kremlin leader’s Ukraine gambit has pushed Joe Biden to focus attention on Russia, officials say.
Activists at the U.S. embassy in Berlin on Jan. 29.
Photographer: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
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Vladimir Putin likes keeping Western leaders on their toes, guessing what his intentions are and what he might do next. The Russian president has been doing it for more than two decades and mostly getting away with it.
As thousands of Russian troops began withdrawing from the Ukrainian border Friday, easing some of the worst tensions with the U.S. and Europe since the Cold War, there’s quiet satisfaction in the Kremlin that the high-risk gambit paid off.