'Who's The Fairest Vlad of All': Expert Perspective on the Russian President's Next Move

‘Who’s The Fairest Vlad of All’: Expert Perspective on the Russian President’s Next Move

Sevastopol. Crimea. December 2020. A house with a portrait of Putin. A faded portrait of the president on one of the old houses in Sevastopol.

Posted: May 20th, 2022

By Rob Dannenberg

Rob Dannenberg served as chief of operations for CIA's Counterterrorism Center, chief of the Central Eurasia Division and chief of the Information Operations Center before retiring from the Agency. He served as managing director and head of the Office of Global Security for Goldman Sachs, and as director of International Security Affairs at BP. He is now an independent consultant on geopolitical and security risk.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — “Mirror, mirror on the wall—who’s the fairest one of all?” is the famous misquote from the movie Snow White. Speaking at a press conference in Helsinki on May 11, a visibly angry Finnish President Sauli Niinisto responded to a reporter’s question about possible Russian reaction to a decision by Finland to join NATO saying “My response is that you caused this. Look in the mirror.”

Niinisto was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Putin’s decision to order Russia to invade neutral Ukraine on February 24. In the past week, both Sweden and Finland—countries that were neutral throughout the Cold War—announced their decision to apply for membership in NATO. It’s a momentous decision.

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