As Result of Putin’s War in Ukraine, Russia Now ‘More Isolated’ than at Any Time Since Bolshevik Revolution, Nina Khrushcheva Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 15 – Nina Khrushcheva, the adoptive granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and now a professor at New York’s New School, says that Putin’s war in Ukraine has left Russia “more isolated” than at any time since the first years after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.

            “Putin believed that invading Ukraine would restore Russia’s status as a great power, diminish Western influence and accelerate the transition to a multipolar international order,” she writes (project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukraine-war-has-left-russia-isolated-and-weakened-by-nina-l-khrushcheva-2026-05 reposted at nv.ua/opinion/putin-teryaet-vseh-nina-hrushcheva-rasskazala-kakie-strany-vyshli-iz-pod-vliyaniya-rf-50608052.html).

            Instead, Khrushcheva says, “the invasion has shattered the Kremlin’s credibility as a partner and ally. Russia still has nuclear weapons, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and vast energy reserves; but his war has severely weakened he country, stripping it of the ability to project power or influence global affairs other than by threatening war.”

            Indeed, as the war grinds on in its fifth year, “North Korea has likely emerged as Russia’s most steadfast ally.” But “even this relationship remains strictly transactional in nature, grounded in a shared sense of vulnerability and mutual hostility toward the West” rather than any larger purpose.