Why the US and Nato have long wanted Russia to attack Ukraine | LSE blog by Robert H. Wade - March 30, 2022 |

Having summarized the ambition of Putin and the Russian state, we return to the US and NATO strategy for Ukraine and Russia. I draw on an eye-opening essay by Joe Lauria, "Biden confirms why the US needed this war". The essay fleshes out the US and NATO's ulterior motives in the Ukraine crisis:  to end the Putin regime and replace it with one friendly to and subordinate to the US.

The US strategy for regime change in Moscow has been long in preparation. In 2013 (before Ukraine's President Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014), Carl Gersham, director of National Endowment for Democracy (NED), wrote: "Ukraine is the biggest prize." He explained that if it could be pulled away from Russia and into the West, "Putin may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself."   

This larger strategy for containing Russia is the context to understand expansion of NATO members all along Russia's borders, from Baltics to Bulgaria, and 30,000 NATO-designated troops. Also for the US and some other western states' military intervention to overthrow Syria's ruler, Russia's ally. Also for encouraging US NGOs to foment unrest in Russia.

Since 2015 the CIA has been overseeing a secret intensive training program in the US for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel. On January 14 2022 Yahoo! News reported, "The CIA-trained forces could soon play a critical role on Ukraine's eastern border, where Russian troops have massed in what many fear is preparation for an invasion."  A former CIA official explained,  "The United States is training an insurgency."

No surprise that Moscow has long read US and NATO actions as deeply hostile, intended to produce "regime change" in the Kremlin. 

Nuclear rhetoric and escalation management in Russia's war against Ukraine: A Chronology | Sept. 2022 |

'Sapere aude'