”Beijing understands it: if Russia can take Ukraine, why can’t China snatch Taiwan? ”

We’re appalled by Putin now, but be clear: the west gave him the green light 

Jonathan Freedland Jonathan Freedland

 He has hardly kept his worldview secret – and now Ukraine is paying the price for western leaders who looked the other way

Because Putin had hardly kept his worldview secret until now. On the contrary, he had acted on it at least three times in the past 15 years, each time paying little price. He seized a chunk of Georgia in 2008 and of Ukraine in 2014, to say nothing of his decision to adopt the Assad regime’s murderous war against the Syrian people as his own a year later. We may have forgotten about all that – the Russian dissident Garry Kasparov laments the “amnesia of the west” – but Putin had not. He noted the western shrug that greeted his annexation of Crimea: how, just four years later, Russia was cheerfully hosting the football World Cup.

 The grimmer prospect is that Putin understands something about the 21st century few of us want to face: that this is an age of impunity, especially for those who have a vast and deadly arsenal but no shame.

That is what’s at stake in this moment. Beijing understands it: if Russia can take Ukraine, why can’t China snatch Taiwan?

過去にプーチンにやりたい放題にせさて、それでいてお咎めなしだった。ああ、だったら今度も大丈夫だろう、と。さらに、プーチンがウクライナ取れるなら、中国は台湾とれるよな、と中国は理解するだろう、と。

これ、ガーディアンの記事ですよ。