Putin reaches for more

President Donald Trump may believe that NATO is obsolete, but Vladimir Putin clearly doesn’t. The Russian ruler remains motivated to take extreme and sometimes self-defeating measures to stop any expansion of the alliance, as an unlikely spat between the Kremlin and the normally Russophilic government of Greece demonstrates.

The trouble started in June, when after decades of dispute the left-wing Greek government of Alexis Tsipras finally reached an agreement with Macedonia, whose name Athens has disputed since it became an independent nation a quarter-century ago. In exchange for its neighbor’s adoption of the name the Republic of North Macedonia, Greece agreed to lift its objection to the tiny Balkan state’s accession to NATO and the European Union.

Macedonia is smaller than Maryland, has a population of just 2 million and is bordered on three sides by NATO members, so its accession to the alliance ought to be both logical and of scant concern to Moscow. Yet the Putin regime launched an ugly campaign of bribery and subterfuge to stop it.

Putin has had remarkable success in inducing Trump to promote the Kremlin’s interests and parrot its agenda, including its goal of weakening and eventually fracturing NATO. But the blowup over Macedonia is a reminder that, in his zeal to restore Russia’s superpower status, Putin has frequently overplayed his hand. With or without Trump’s help, Macedonia probably will join NATO. And despite the machinations of Putin and his White House friend, our bet is that the alliance will outlast both of them.