4: 1. The Roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War: Putin's Power and the Failure of the 2008 NATO Summit. Serhii Plokhy (Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University) analyzes the origins of the Russo-Ukrainian War, highlighting Vladimir Putin's authority,

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🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

1. The Roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War: Putin's Power and the Failure of the 2008 NATO Summit. Serhii Plokhy (Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University) analyzes the origins of the Russo-Ukrainian War, highlighting Vladimir Putin's authority, which is derived from Russia's super-presidential constitution. This power allowed him to move toward dictating who could align with the West. The 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest proved critical: the alliance split, with the US favoring membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and Germany leading opposition. This resulted in a failure to agree, leaving Ukraine and Georgia exposed to future Russian attacks without military guarantees. Putin responded by starting the war in Georgia later that year, effectively annexing territory and rendering Georgia ineligible for NATO. In Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, backed by Putin, lost the 2004 election due to the Orange Revolution, which Putin viewed as a serious threat to his authority in Russia. Yanukovych returned in 2010 and, pressured by Russia, refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union in 2013, triggering the Euromaidan Revolution. This protest against Moscow's influence was a direct prelude to the annexation of Crimea and the start of the 2014 war.
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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. Here's John Batchelor.
0:12.1	Ukraine conflict. It is February 23rd, 24th, 2014 at the Kremlin.
0:19.3	A meeting that lasts all night involves the heads of state security,
0:24.1	the GRU, the SVR, the FSB, plus the National Security Council, plus Vladimir Putin,
0:31.0	and the decision that night is to annex and tear apart Ukraine. This scene is representative of the decisions made at the Kremlin
0:43.3	without any permission of anyone outside,
0:46.8	like a democracy or a parliament or representatives of government
0:50.7	or people of the world,
0:53.3	made unilaterally by Vladimir Putin and his state security
0:57.1	chiefs, remembering always that Vladimir Putin's training is that of a Czechist, a member of the
1:04.5	FSB, a secret policeman.
1:07.5	This scene riveting is in a new book, The Russo-Ukrainian War, The Return of History, by Professor Serhi Ploki.
1:16.6	He is a professor of Ukrainian history and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
1:22.6	This book written between March of 2022, the month after the invasion, and February of
1:30.6	2023. The war is ongoing. It's more than 500 days, but the roots of it are critical
1:36.2	to understand if we have the future. The professor reminds us that an historian is the
1:41.7	worst possible interpreter of current events except for everyone else.
1:46.4	Professor, I greet you. Thank you very much.
1:49.6	What in that meeting illustrates a theme that runs through your book?
1:54.2	This is a combination events that are in contest, a war of national liberation, Ukraine,
2:00.4	an imperial disintegration, a war of national liberation, Ukraine,
2:04.9	an imperial disintegration, Soviet Russian Federation.
	...

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