Pavel Baev is a leading international expert on Russian foreign and security policy. He grew up and studied in the former Soviet Union, worked in the Soviet Ministry of Defense, and is now a professor at Oslo's Peace Research Institute, as well as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
In this conversation with host Grant Reeher, Baev discusses what's motivating Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine, and what's at stake for the West in the conflict there. He compares Russia's involvement to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and argues that Russia is "experimenting" in the region, and in the future may try something new and disruptive, somewhere else.
