While everyone is rushing about mobilization in Russia. What is more important with Putin said?

Alexander Vershbou American diplomat, former NATO Secretary General, Honored Researcher at Atlantic Council Although all the media will suffer about mobilization, focus on the Kremlin's promise to annex part of the East of Ukraine Putin with a weak position, good moves, one or two. His decision on partial mobilization is a reverse of his inner critics - the far -right militarists (who urge him to be more aggressive in Ukraine) and the recognition that he is still determined to destroy Ukraine.

Video day also emphasizes how weak Putin is and in what desperate state. Putin's decision to mobilize can be unpopular. But so far he did so as to avoid the conscription young people from the elite St. Petersburg and Moscow. He may get off his hands. The bottom line is that the mobilization of the Yot will immediately change the situation on the battlefield. Recently mobilized soldiers have to undergo intense training.

Although all the media will sound about mobilization, focus on Putin's promise to annex part of the East of Ukraine. Annexation decision can be more important than geopolitical than mobilization decision. Putin is likely to expand the Russian nuclear umbrella in four regions of Ukraine - the decision on annexation of which Ukraine will never make.

What will happen when Kyiv tries to return the territory in eastern Ukraine illegally annexed by Moscow? This can be the first step to a potential nuclear blackmail that Moscow considers its territory. Nuclear blackmail sets the tasks of difficult decisions to Western leaders and creates the prospect of some potentially uncomfortable balancing on the verge of war. The translation of HB has an exclusive right to translate and publish the Atlantic Council columns.