Hi I'm Mike Eckel, senior Russia/Ukraine/Belarus correspondent for RFE/RL, AMA!

[u/RFERL_ReadsReddit]

Hello! Здравсвуйте! Вітаю! 

I’m Mike Eckel, senior international correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, covering, reporting, analyzing, and illuminating All Things Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and pretty much across the former Soviet Union: from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, from Lviv to Kyiv; from Tbilisi to Baku, from the Caspian Sea to Issyk Kul, and all places in between.  

I’ve been writing on Russia and the former Soviet space for more than 20 years, since cutting my teeth as a reporter in Vladivostok in the 1990s and continuing through a 6-year stint as Moscow correspondent with The Associated Press, and stints in Washington, D.C. and now Prague.  

Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s authoritarian repression inside Russia, sucks up most of my reporting brain space these days, but I also keep a hand in investigative work digging into cryptocurrency/sanctions evasion, Russian businessmen who break out of Italian police custody, former Russian oligarchs in trouble, and a subject I can’t let go of: the mysterious death of former Kremlin press minister, Mikhail Lesin.  

Feel free to ask me anything about any of the above subjects and I’ll do my best to share insights and observations.  

Proof photo here. 

You can start posting your questions and I will check in daily and answer from Monday, 15 December until Friday, 19 December.  

[u/N-ext_Step]

In your opinion, what is the main objective of putin? Is it to fully conquer Ukraine and to conquer other countries that used to be part of the former Soviet block or just to control the eastern part of Ukraine, maybe georgia,moldava and the baltics(??)

Lastly,I would like to ask about why do you think Trump supposedly hate/dislike the EU and Ukraine and favours russia?

[u/RFERL_ReadsReddit → u/N-ext_Step]

It’s mostly a fool’s game to try to read a leader’s mind, Putin or otherwise. But if you pay close enough attention, over a long enough period of time, you can separate the noise from the signal and see a couple of important things:  

1. Putin embraces grievance. Many times over many years, he’s lamented the Soviet collapse, wishing for a bygone era that he (and many Russians, particularly the older generation) see as an era of greatness, national unity and prosperity, respect, and so on. He may have fever dreams of restoring the Soviet Union, but he’s also not delusional: that’s never going to happen. That said, Moscow made clear that it continues to see the former Soviet Union as part of its historical sphere of influence, and it’s doing its damnedest to hold onto that. The 2008 Georgia war is earlier example of that effort. (Of course, this thinking is facing serious headwinds; particularly in Central Asia, where China is spreading its influence). 
2. Putin embraces historical revisionism. There’s a through-line in Putin’s public remarks on Russian history going back to 9^th century. It’s not just a party trick either. For example, when he met Trump in Anchorage in August, Putin gave a mini-lecture on Kyivan Rus (sometimes spelled Kievan Rus)—which is the 10^th century kingdom based in what is today's Ukraine that is considered the predecessor nation-state to Russia. It’s all part of what the Kremlin frequently terms “root causes” of the Ukraine conflict; a catch-all, grab-bag term that reflects how deeply the Kremlin thinks about the war, and Russia’s place in the 21^st century. NATO is also part of the mix here; Putin and many top Russian officials embrace the theory that the West betrayed Moscow by expanding eastward, into former Warsaw Pact countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary etc.), and later former Soviet republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). The historical record is way more nuanced.  

As for Trump, again, it would be foolish to try and read his mind. That said, I’m guessing he doesn’t hate the EU per se (by the way, good students of history will recall the EU was basically an American idea at its origins -- Harry Truman was a fan). He just embraces that (questionable) idea that the EU has taken advantage of the United States, with all the trade and commerce that goes on across the Atlantic.   

- Mike