Putin's Limits: Russia's Power in an Anarchic World

The piece argues that Russia’s hard power proved insufficient to project influence beyond Ukraine after 2014 and especially since 2022; Moscow has pivoted toward China and regional partners, but European and American resolve has limited its diplomacy and constrained its ability to shape events abroad. While Putin may escalate to press Kyiv or widen the war, Moscow’s global clout remains waning, and its future depends on Western unity and the unpredictable dynamics of Trump’s foreign-policy era.