Robert Wade: Rethinking the Ukraine Crisis
Journal: London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Year: 2015

The prevailing interpretation of the Ukraine crisis in the West says that Russia – specifically president Putin – started it and controls most of the military forces fighting the Ukrainian army. Martin Wolf of The Financial Times, for example, claims that Russia started it because its leaders fear having a stable, prosperous and West-leaning democracy on their doorstep, and saw this as a distinct possibility after their ally, president Yanukovich, was ousted in a coup d’etat in February 2014. Th