“Russia may now be going through a bad time,” the adviser told Braithwaite. “But the reality is that in a decade or two, Russia will reassert itself as the dominant power in this vast geographic region.” His words — which the ambassador later repeated to me — foreshadowed Vladimir Putin’s increasingly aggressive course of action since he became president in 2000, culminating in the invasion of Ukraine in February. The ousting of Mikhail Gorbachev from the presidency heralded a new era for Russia RON SACHS/CNP/THE MEGA AGENCY Six months
