Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Akio Kawato: How long will Putin’s judo diplomacy keep working?
President Vladimir Putin is a judo player and he loves to liken foreign policy to judo. When your opponent pushes you, you retreat a while and then, using the opponent’s power, throw him or her down. Thus, Putin took advantage of Mikheil Saakashvili’s faux pas in August 2008 and President Barack Obama’s half-hearted Syria foray in September 2013 with military and political successes. This time he reacted to the belligerent Russophobia of the rightist radicals in Kyiv and those who supported them, enjoying an ephemeral victory. Putin may want to use the same technique in the Eastern Ukraine.