THE FALLOUT

AS RUSSIA’S VLADIMIR PUTIN SETS OUT TO SUBJUGATE UKRAINE, WHAT IS THE COST INDIA, HIS OWN COUNTRY AND THE WORLD WILL HAVE TO PAY?

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

IN HOMER’S EPIC ODYSSEY, Ulysses, the legen­dary Greek king, while journeying on the Medi­ terranean, found himself caught between Scylla and Charybdis, two mythical sea monsters that inhabited the opposite shores of the Strait of Mes­sina near Italy. He was advised to lose a few sailors to Scylla rather than surrender his ship and entire crew to the more­feared Charybdis. Aeons later, Russian President Vladimir Putin believed he was confro nting a Ulyssean dilemma. A creeping effort by countries allied to the North Atlantic Tre aty Organisation (NATO) to encircle Russia— a containment strategy unfolding over a span of three decades—posed an existential threat to his once­great nation. His choices? Either wage war on Ukraine, Russia’s immediate neighbour, which was keen to join the western alliance, or swallow the affront and watch Russia being treated as a pygmy in the emerging new world order.