The warnings from Anton Gerashchenko land with the weight of bitter experience. He watched Moscow build the same narrative before Georgia in 2008, before Crimea in 2014, before the full‑scale assault on Ukraine in 2022: claims of “Russophobia,” discrimination, language bans, persecution. Each time, legal arguments and diplomatic complaints were never the endgame, only the opening act. They created a moral pretext, a story Russia could point to when it chose to escalate.
Putin just made a concerning announcement about three countries – and it could pave the way for an invasion
