Welcome to the Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's

article written by Dr. Jim Denison. Yesterday, Russian lawmakers authorized President Vladimir Putin to

use military force outside the country.

This as Russian troops poured into the eastern region of Ukraine in what President Biden called

the beginning of a Russian invasion of that country.

The president responded by announcing that the U.S. would employ a variety of economic

sanctions against Russian institutions and elites. Germany took steps to suspend the Nord Stream 2

gas pipeline from Russia. The U.K. sanctioned five Russian banks and predicted pariah status

for Vladimir Putin if he takes further action.

Turkish President Erdogan denounced as unacceptable Russia's decision to recognize

breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories. Why would Mr. Putin choose aggression against Ukraine in the face of such united and predictable opposition?

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Fiddler explains Putin's endgame by focusing on the post-Cold War agreements that humiliated Russia.

He notes, Mr. Putin has made clear he wants to redraw the post-Cold

War security map of Europe. Accordingly, Putin wants to stop further enlargement of the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose expansion he views as encroaching on Russia's security.

He alleges that NATO and the West broke promises in 1990 not to expand eastward beyond Germany,

acclaimed Western leaders dispute.

He therefore wants NATO to scale back its military reach to the 1990s before it expanded

east of Germany. This would mean withdrawing Western support and protection from Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia,

Albania, and Montenegro, all part of a region that formed a western buffer zone for the USSR

prior to its collapse. In some, Mr. Putin seeks to undo many of the security

...