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Rob Person 🇺🇸🇺🇦
@RTPerson3
Prof. of International Relations & @FPRI Senior Fellow. Specialist on Russian/post-Soviet politics and tweed. Proudly banned from Russia. Personal views.
New York, USA
Joined July 2016
Posts
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    “Why Putin Invaded Ukraine” - In this piece, @McFaul and I argue that a permissive balance of power, Putin’s personalist autocracy, and his anti-democratic & anti-Ukrainian ideology led him to launch his disastrous war - not NATO enlargement. Read it for free here:
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    I have studied Vladimir Putin’s regime for my entire scholarly career. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you cannot trust him as far as you can spit. Which is what you should do whenever you think of him. He is the very embodiment of evil and should be treated accordingly.
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    Disappointed that @nytimes has declared that “both sides have hard line positions.” There is nothing “hard line” about Ukraine wanting to be whole, free, and at peace. It is their right under international law.
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    Let me be clear: if Ukraine loses its war to Russia, it will be because we - the United States of America - made a deliberate choice to abandon them to the armies of a bloodthirsty tyrant. This is unacceptable - this is not who we are. #StandWithUkraine
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    Peace negotiations to settle Russia’s war against Ukraine are doomed to fail. Pressuring Kyiv to bargain with the devil in Moscow is misguided, misinformed, and downright dangerous. I explain why in my latest @JoDemocracy article. THREAD 1/
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    How long can Russia endure Western sanctions? A THREAD based on my research on the political economy of Russian grand strategy. Data from @WorldBank, @IMFNews and Russian Ministry of Finance. 1/
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    I'm puzzled by those who continue to call for restraint in our support of Ukraine, urging caution out of fear that this is developing into a "proxy war." Don't they realize that Russia has been waging a multi-domain war against us, our allies, and partners for years now?
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    THREAD: Here's why sanctioning the Central Bank of Russia could prove devastating - the true "nuclear" option in the West's financial arsenal. Russia currently holds about $640 billion in reserves. About 32% held in euros, 22% in gold, 16% in dollars, and 13% in Yuan. 1/
    Replying to @RTPerson3
    This chart shows the inflation-adjusted Russia's total reserves (monetary gold, special drawing rights, IMF reserves, and foreign exchange reserves held by central bank). Though they've risen in recent years, they also decline during recessions 10/
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    The Crimean Bridge is the key to unlocking Ukraine's victory, but destroying it is harder than you might realize. @general_ben and I joined two West Point engineering profs to analyze the challenges Ukraine faces in disabling it permanently 🧵1/
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    Misleading headline - Putin has never been interested in a “peace deal.” Since day 1 of this war he has demanded nothing less than unconditional surrender and complete subjugation of Ukraine. Don’t pretend otherwise.
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    “Your money is not charity. It's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.” -@ZelenskyyUa 🇺🇦
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    “The time has come to understand that Russia cannot be stopped by persuasion, cooperation, appeasement or concessions. Russia takes such gestures as a sign of weakness, as permission to expand and intensify its onslaught.” ⁦- @GitanasNauseda
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    The genocide deniers have been turning a blind eye since the Bucha massacre was revealed. Will Russia’s castration of Ukrainian POWs - literally sterilizing a nationality - finally convince them that Moscow is attempting the undeniable ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians? Horrifying.
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    Replying to @RTPerson3
    But now we can also see his long-run strategy. Putin knows he can't compete by lifting Russia up to the level of his "peer" great powers. So he will do everything he can to tear down his top geopolitical rival - the United States - and its partners and allies globally. 25/END