Might Ukraine might be just the first country on Vlad the Invader’s wish list? Stella Ghervas, professor of Russian history at Newcastle University, believes Putin is inspired by the borders of the old Russian Empire, once one of the world’s great powers.
And she says that to understand his motivations we need to go back to before the so-called October Revolution of 1917 which ushered in the Bolsheviks and led to the establishment of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire back then, but so were countries like Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan and Georgina. And perhaps most chillingly, not long before, so was Russia ’s northwestern-most territory Alaska until it was sold to the USA in 1867.
