Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. I thank the committee members for inviting me to testify today.
I will not repeat the background information provided by the previous witness. I share his views and believe his description of the situation to be accurate. However, what I'd like to add to complement his presentation is what Russia is currently asking for and why this crisis is happening now.
First of all, through Vladimir Putin, Russia is practically demanding an end to NATO expansion efforts in Eastern Europe. He is trying to prevent future enlargements that would bring NATO's borders closer to Russia, because Russian decision makers still see NATO as a threat.
In addition, Russia is demanding that NATO withdraw its troops and stop strengthening its military presence in its new member states. Essentially, it's demanding that NATO revert to essentially the position it had during the Cold War.
So, these are explicit demands from the [Technical difficulty]. The Russian authorities know very well that these are unacceptable conditions, and that NATO member countries could never subject their decisions to a foreign power. It would be like giving Russia a veto of sorts on the decisions of NATO member states. So these conditions are impossible to meet, and Russia knows this very well.
We can ask ourselves, what does Russia really want, what does Vladimir Putin want? If you look at more recent foreign policy, what he's really trying to do is restore Russia to its former glory. He wants to regain Russia's respectable status in the international order. He is also trying to protect Russia's interests and security. Again, he believes that NATO is a threat to Russia. So he's attempting, by any means necessary, to move that threat away from his borders.
He's also looking to preserve Russia's sphere of influence. Russia wants a buffer around it of countries that will comply with its demands. These countries would therefore not be fully sovereign. The problem with these Russian demands, which are long-standing, is that they call into question the international order we live in.
In Russia's eyes, the world is made up of two kinds of countries, those that are sovereign, which theoretically [Technical difficulty], that is, they do not need to bow to any larger foreign or international powers. Then there are the “near abroad” countries—that's what Russia calls them—that emerged from the former Soviet Union. The 14 former republics—15, including Russia—are considered part of the “near abroad” and, the way Moscow sees it, they grew out of the former Soviet Union and are not fully sovereign because they must align their foreign policy with whatever Moscow wants.
Countries that comply with Moscow have no problems and Russia cooperates with them. For example, last month Kazakhstan experienced riots and asked Moscow to send troops to help re‑establish order. Russia complied, and once order was restored, it withdrew its troops without issue. Kazakhstan aligns its foreign policy with whatever Moscow wants.
However, other states, like Georgia—as we saw in 2008—or Ukraine, that do not necessarily want to align their foreign policy with Moscow's and they run into problems. Moscow encourages such things as secession movements in those countries, and that's something Moscow can easily use to manipulate and pressure them. In other words, those countries are not fully sovereign.
I will say a few words about—