Gates, who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine could continue to hurt Russia's economy.
formally applied to join NATO — essentially ending decades of neutrality on the world stage — former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the development"huge" and a major defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin.was partly driven by a desire to prevent the country from joining NATO, which would put the military alliance right at Russia's border.
"He's going to have them on his border in Finland. And it's an amazing thing he's done because he's gotten Sweden to abandon 200 years of neutrality," Gates said."So I think one of his many, huge miscalculations in invading Ukraine is he has dramatically changed the geostrategic posture of Western Europe. And now that you have the Swedes and the Finns as part of that, he's really put Russia in a much worse strategic position than it had before the invasion.
"His invasion has weakened Russia and it's got now long-term economic problems," Gates said."Europe, I think, is very serious at this point about weaning itself away from dependence on Russian oil and gas. So that will weaken Russia significantly." "China will want to remain diversified," Gates said."They might buy some more Russian oil and gas, but nothing like what would be required to replace the European market. Putin will remain a pariah ... He has put Russia really behind the 8-ball economically, militarily, and because now people are going to look at the Russian military and say, 'You know, this was supposed to be this fantastic military. Well, they give a good parade, but in actual combat, not so hot.
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