Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed several times that he wants to recreate a Greater Russia.
— The Russian leadership has made it clear several times that Russia’s borders are actually the former borders of the Soviet Union, or Tsarist Russia before that. The Ukraine war has made it clear what Russia’s intentions are, says Jakob Hedenskog, an analyst at the Center for East European Studies.
So which countries does Putin want?
— There are mainly three regions, if you disregard the Baltic states that are part of NATO and the EU. In Eastern Europe it is Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. In the South Caucasus there are Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and then there are five states in Central Asia, says Jakob Hedenskog in Nyhetsmorgon.
This is what Putin’s dream looks like – see the clip in the player above