The West could be in for a far more dangerous confrontation with Russia than during the Cold War, now that the nation has more to lose than it did decades ago, according to political science professor Seva Gunitsky.
“Today Russia is acting from a position of weakness, believe it or not. It doesn’t seem weak, but in some ways it is weak and desperate,” Gunitsky told CTV’s Your Morning. “In some ways it is even more dangerous than the Cold War, because at least during the Cold War, the Soviet Union could rest on its laurels, so to speak.”
Gunitsky, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, analyzes how international forces like war and globalization have shaped democracy. He wrote a paper called American IR and Russian Foreign Policy where he examined implicit assumptions people have about Russian foreign policy.
Last week’s poisoning of former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, on British soil has renewed Western tensions toward Russia.
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from the U.K. The statement came after Russia refused to explain how a Russian-made nerve agent was used to poison Skripal.
The British government has the option of using punitive economic sanctions against Russia as well. Russia’s notorious oligarchs have parked billions of dollars in London.
“The one thing they care about is money…. So the U.K. actually has some leverage here. They could go after financial assets of Russian oligarchs; they could make it harder for them to do business in England,” said Gunitsky.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the poisoning, calling the act “despicable.”
“Canada has offered assistance through many points of contact with the British government since this attack,” said Trudeau in an official statement.
Russia’s ambassador to the U.K. Alexander Yakovenko said in an interview with the U.K.’s Sky News that the Kremlin will respond in kind with British diplomats in Russia. “There will be expulsions. As you understand in diplomatic practice, there will be answers from the Russian side,” said Yakovenko.
Gunitsky expressed some anxiety about who exactly in Russia committed the poisoning. He suggested that the attack on Skripal could be the result of Putin losing control of his country’s security services.
“It almost feels personal in a way. It’s not clear who is behind it. The scariest scenario is that Putin did not even authorize this, and there is a rogue element in the Russian government that feels autonomous enough to do this,” said Gunitsky.
With a report from CTV’s Your Morning
