Flaneur
I read it three times but can only conclude that the piece more skewed in favor of Russia, as he states himself in the second last paragraph. He chastises the west for abandoning Ukraine but overlooks Putin's threat of nuclear retaliation, possibly because he, like us all. doesn't have an answer to that. He alludes to Putin's aim of subjugating Ukraine as something he might give up for less if he gets the east of Ukraine and Crimea. Well, he has that, more or less and it hasn't stopped him. He seems to think that Russia might allow Ukraine to keep an army if they gave up their missiles and overlooks that Ukraine already gave up all their nuclear arsenal: any missiles that they may have apart from those wouldn't impress Putin much. He will insist on disarmament.
The Guardian continues, rightly, to give space to competing ideas and I think this is an example of just that but I wasn't left feeling that I had heard from someone of like mind.
