Putin's Strategy of Chaos

Late last year, Vladimir Putin met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi. On the agenda was a political settlement to end the war in Syria. Russian observers framed this summit a “new Yalta without Americans,” as it revived memories of the 1945 meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to establish the postwar order in Europe. Leaders in Moscow relish memories of Yalta, recalling a bygone era when great powers cut sweeping deals at the expense of little ones. Putin even praised the Yalta Conference before the UN General Assembly in 2015, claiming that it laid a “solid foundation for the postwar world order.” That same year, State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin specifically cited the 1945 meeting of the “Big Three” as an ideal solution to international problems. In their respective speeches, both Putin and Naryshkin indicated that they still saw Washington as a useful partner. However, the implication of Sochi was clear: The United States was no longer wanted. Pro-Kremlin commentators even described the Sochi meet-up as the “axis of order.” It was undoubtedly a dig at George W. Bush’s “axis of evil”—and the sacrifices the West has made to uphold the principles of international law and state sovereignty. Putin was sending a message.