Many assume Vladimir Putin’s obsessive attention to the defense of Russia’s borders is rooted in the loss of Moscow’s control over the former union republics and occupied Baltic countries in 1991, says political analyst Pavel Luzin. But while that matters, in fact, Mr. Putin has become especially nervous about it since his occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.
In addition to everything else, the Anschluss not only meant that Russia is again like the USSR (as regards the Baltic countries it occupied), a state with only partially recognized borders, but also created new problems for domestic territorial arrangements within the country, the analyst from Perm notes (region.expert/forbidden-lands/).