DW News published this video item, entitled “Does Putin want to “crush” NATO? | Conflict Zone” – below is their description.
As the NATO summit gets underway in Madrid, former Russian member of Parliament Ilya Ponomarev told DW’s Conflict Zone Vladimir Putin’s war aims go way beyond Ukraine.
He argues it is NATO that’s firmly in Putin’s sights. “He wants to crush NATO, that’s his strategic goal,” said Ponomarev.
Ponomarev has an unusual role in this war. He once sat in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, then in 2014 became the only member to vote against the annexation of Crimea.
He is now based in Kyiv, from where he also spoke to Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian about the current public mood in Russia and whether a civil war in the country is inevitable, as he has argued in the past.
“What Vladimir Putin learned and taught Russians very accurately is that there is no way to get rid of him through the elections process,” he stressed.
Conflict Zone is Deutsche Welle’s top political interview. Every week, our hosts Tim Sebastian and Sarah Kelly are face to face with global decision-makers, seeking straight answers to straight questions, putting the spotlight on controversial issues and calling the powerful to account.
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DW News is a global English-language news and information channel from German public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, established in summer 2015.
Crimea is a peninsula along the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe. It has a population of 2.4 million, made up mostly of ethnic Russians with significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and a former officer of the KGB who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 1999 until 2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe known for its Orthodox churches, Black Sea coastline and forested mountains. Its capital, Kiev, features the gold-domed St. Sophia’s Cathedral, with 11th-century mosaics and frescoes. Overlooking the Dnieper River is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Christian pilgrimage site housing Scythian tomb relics and catacombs containing mummified Orthodox monks.
Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician and a former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously being in the office from 1999 until 2008. He was also Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.
Voting is a method for a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, in order to make a collective decision or express an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a place represented by an elected official are called “constituents”, and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called “voters”. There are different systems for collecting votes, but while many of the systems used in decision-making can also be used as electoral systems, any which cater for proportional representation can only be used in elections.
In smaller organizations, voting can occur in different ways. Formally via ballot to elect others for example within a workplace, to elect members of political associations or to choose roles for others. Informally voting could occur as a spoken agreement or as a verbal gesture like a raised hand or electronically.