Concessions required

Manhattan: During the International Military Tribunal of 1946, it was noted that “the crime of aggression is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” That Putin is guilty of this should be obvious. Yet it is no exaggeration to point out that NATO’s eastward expansion after the fall of the Berlin Wall was unnecessarily provocative to Russia’s security interests. Leading figures in the foreign policy establishment have been pointing this out for 25 years. They include George Kennan, the most respected Soviet expert in the State Department’s history; William Perry, secretary of defense under Clinton; and William Burns, director of the CIA. The context is necessary because it will be crucial in negotiating a ceasefire, which should be the top priority for the world — not just for Ukrainian society but for our own security, given the nuclear threat.

Ravi Katari