Carl von Clausewitz famously remarked that war is the continuation of politics (or policy) by other means (Russians have not discovered that there are better things than turnips, February 27). Nevertheless to suggest, as Prof Gerrit Olivier seems to in his otherwise perceptive article on Putin’s Russia, that the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the forcible annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s current and very active involvement in the Syrian civil war can be counted as "foreign policy achievements" is taking it a bit far. However much Russia has dressed up each episode in the language of either protecting civil rights (Georgia), enabling a democratic referendum (Crimea) or helping to restore peace and order (Syria), each has involved the active and violent participation of either the Russian military or their local substitutes. Furthermore, you can’t compare Gorbachev in the 1980s with Putin today in the context of Russian-American relations and the danger of a new Cold War. Gorba...
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