Ukraine, Sisci: “Putin back to the wall, risk of attack”

Vladimir Putin “actually feels cornered” and “surely if he retires they would be a setback, so he could also take the risk of an attack, perhaps not an invasion, that registers a point” to “declare victory” for “then resume negotiations”. Sinologist Francesco Sisci thus speaks to Adnkronos in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, underlining how “it would be a dangerous move”, but “perhaps it could be politically useful to buy time”. According to Sisci, “Putin can theoretically desist from an attack with two conditions: if he has something to resell internally and if for him the risk of an attack becomes enormous”. But “we don’t know how Putin makes these calculations”. “In the medium term – he continues – the risks can be very important for Putin’s government”. Sisci insists on “imponderable internal reflections”, of what “could be the beginning of a redefinition of Russia itself, of Putin’s power”. “Certainly – he says – Putin’s hope was to condition Ukrainian domestic politics and Ukraine certainly lives on a tightrope in recent weeks “. Sisci talks about the “weak currency”, the “huge inflation”, the “broken” economy and adds: “Precisely because Ukraine has such great risks it is the one that could eventually think of earning more in this situation” In the meantime, he reiterates, “this is changing all European dynamics” because Europe that “for 30 years had tried to find accommodation with Putin’s Russia, now sees that these arrangements are impossible and that everything must be rethought”. And, he remarks, “the transatlantic relationship, which was a superficial, almost accessory thing, almost a legacy of the past, is being strengthened day by day”, while “America has been heavily brought back to Europe” and “NATO has been resurrected. ” Italy, he concludes, “is late and these delays can cost a lot because they are then added to structural deficiencies of any other nature”.