the crackdown chinese economic espionage mess

#The crackdown chinese economic espionage mess tv#

Behind the unmarked door, a handful of armed guards looked at me in silence. The address led to an old apartment block near the end of a steep slope, with no outward sign of its political significance. It took me a while to find Medvedchuk’s office amid the alleys of the city center. The question that now fills headlines around the world- What does Putin want?-is not a matter of conjecture for his closest friend in Kyiv. In the year before the crisis escalated, he met with Putin several times at his residence near Moscow, despite the pandemic protocols that have kept the Russian leader isolated from all but his top aides. Read more: Alexei Navalny Urges Biden to Stand Up to Putinįew people have a clearer vantage on Putin’s response than the alleged coup plotter, Medvedchuk. When Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest, the Russian leader called the attack on his proxies “an absolutely obvious purge of the political field,” one that threatened to turn Ukraine “into Russia’s antithesis, a kind of anti-Russia.” To understand Putin’s objectives, you have to understand both his personal and political ties to Ukraine, as well as his long-standing aim to bring the nation under his control.

But the roots of the crisis have been overlooked. In trying to discern Putin’s motives, observers have raised his strategic wish to humble the Americans, divide the Europeans, and restore Moscow’s influence over the lands it controlled before its empire crumbled in 1991. The resulting standoff has revived the tensions of the Cold War and pushed Europe to the brink of a major military conflict. and its allies have sent planeloads of weapons to Ukraine and thousands of troops to secure the eastern flank of the NATO alliance. In a little-noticed statement, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the deployment of 3,000 paratroopers to the border with Ukraine for “large-scale exercises,” training them to “seize enemy structures and hold them until the arrival of the main force.” Those soldiers were the first in a military buildup that has since grown to more than 100,000 Russian troops. The first inkling of Putin’s response came less than two days later, at 7 a.m. Among the most important, it said, was a pipeline that brings Russian oil to Europe, enriching Medvedchuk and his family-including Putin’s goddaughter, Daria-and helping to bankroll Medvedchuk’s political party. 19, 2021, Ukraine announced that it had seized the assets of Medvedchuk’s family.

#The crackdown chinese economic espionage mess tv#

The Ukrainian government started by taking his TV channels off the air, depriving Russia of its propaganda outlets in the country.

Last February, days after the Inauguration of President Joe Biden, America’s allies in Kyiv decided to get tough on Medvedchuk. So it should not be surprising that Russia’s military standoff with the West has escalated in step with the crackdown against his friend. Short of war, one of the best ways that Putin has to influence Ukraine is through Medvedchuk and his political party. He has spent the past seven years using every tool at his disposal, including coercion and outright invasion, to preserve those ties, as the Ukrainian people increasingly turn toward the West. Throughout his 21 years in power, Putin has seen Ukraine as a fraternal nation, tied to Russia by bonds of faith, family, politics, and a millennium of common history. Read more: What the West Will Never Understand About Putin’s Ukraine Obsession accused him and his allies of plotting to stage a coup with help from the Russian military. Medvedchuk was charged with treason in May and placed under house arrest in Kyiv. Over the past year, that party has come under attack. The leading voice for Russian interests in Ukraine, Medvedchuk’s political party is the biggest opposition force in parliament, with millions of supporters. Putin could say the same about Medvedchuk.