Angela G<p>Best quote I've seen about <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/Putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Putin</span></a> and <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/Ukraine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ukraine</span></a>: </p><p>“This security threat posed by NATO is largely a figment of Russia's strategic paranoia,” Cipher Brief expert Rob Dannenberg, who served as chief of the Central Eurasia Division at CIA, told The Cipher Brief today. “When Putin's talking about the underlying causes of the conflict, it's Ukraine being free, democratic, and potentially a member of NATO.”<br> <br>Dannenberg echoed other experts who assess that Putin is actually concerned about a “bleed over” of freedom and prosperity amongst Ukrainians into Russia that would endanger “his autocracy and kleptocracy.” </p><p><a href="https://mindly.social/tags/SlavaUkraini" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SlavaUkraini</span></a></p>