Russia
Journal: Manchester University Press eBooks
Year: 2016

The eruption of war in Ukraine in 2014 illustrated the strong and prevailing sense of surprise, even astonishment, that has pervaded post-Cold War Western public policy and mainstream media commentary in response to Russian actions. Perhaps the sharpest point was Russia's unexpected annexation of Crimea: one US observer suggested that the US administration was 'not prepared for the contingency that Putin would act so brazenly'. 1 William Hague, then British Foreign Secretary, had reassured the H