It wasn’t all that long ago — just 16 years, in fact — that half of the world’s population lived in countries designated as “free.” Now, just one in five do, according to Freedom House. Whether that will reverse now thanks to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, remains to be seen. My bet is that President Biden will follow the playbook of his predecessors. I hope I’m wrong.
The New York Times yesterday put out an interesting analysis of Putin’s behavior — and of the West’s head-in-the-sand refusal to challenge it over the last two-plus decades. It’s worth reading, here.