(NPR – Audie Cornish talks to Robert Orttung) The Ukrainian city of Debaltseve is now firmly under the control of separatists and their Russian supporters. This railroad hub outside of Donetsk has been the scene of fierce fighting despite the cease-fire agreement reached last week. The continued threat of conflict in Ukraine and destabilization in other former Soviet states is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants, according to an article posted by Foreign Policy magazine.
Joining me is Robert Orttung, a co-author of that article. It's called "Putin's Frozen Conflicts." Welcome to the program. So what do you mean by frozen conflict?
ORTTUNG: Well, a frozen conflict is a conflict where the fighting has essentially stopped, but the underlying issues remain unresolved.
CORNISH: Unresolved to the point where it feels like the fighting could start at any time, right?
ORTTUNG: Right, in most cases. Obviously, in the case of Ukraine, that conflict is ongoing as we've seen from the fighting just the last several days. But in other countries, like Georgia and Moldova, the conflict has been frozen for about 15-20 years now. […]
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