Why Experts Believed an Armed Conflict with Ukraine Would Never Happen
The bottom line is that the costs far outweigh the benefits, which is what underlies our bleak assessment of the current scenario Most experts, both in Russia and abroad, thought it was extremely unlikely and implausible that Russia would launch a full-scale military operation in Ukraine. Allegations that Moscow was preparing for something like this were laughed off, with this being labeled as another Russophobic campaign pushed by propagandists and radicals. However, it turned out on February...