Showing results for "The Soviet Union" in Eastern

In 1949, a newly minted branch of the CIA (the precursor of today’s National Clandestine Service), flush with money and burning with determination to roll back the Iron Curtain, embarked on the first paramilitary operation in the history of the agency. They hatched an elaborate plan, coordinated with the British Secret Intelligence Service, to foment popular rebellion and detach Albania, the weakest of the Soviet satellites in Europe, from Moscow’s orbit. The operation resulted in dismal failure and was shut down by 1954.

The Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, subsequent war in Eastern Ukraine, and economic sanctions imposed by the West transformed European politics. The conflict did not escalate to the levels originally feared but nor was either side able to bring it to a definitive conclusion. Ukraine suffered a loss of territory but was not forced into changing its policies away from the Westward course adopted as a result of the EuroMaidan uprising of February 2014. President Putin was left supporting a separatist enclave as Russia's economy suffered significant damage.

Zaskočilo vás ruské válečné tažení na Ukrajinu? Chcete uvést do kontextu, ale nemáte rádi sáhodlouhá vědecká pojednání? Pak je pro vás kniha Petra Holého tím pravým úvodem do aktuálního problému. Autor si v ní nebere servítky a svižně a s humorem rozebírá, proč je Putin v Rusku tak oblíbený, v čem selhal Západ, jak se liší přístupy světových velmocí i jaká jsou možná východiska tohoto konfliktu. „Rusko by hrozně chtělo překreslovat s ostatními velmocemi mapu Evropy, ale má zásadní problém.