Swedish Foreign Minister says Putin's goal is Ukraine not Crimea

Even before Russia began gearing up to annex Crimea, Baltic states began to express concerns that their shared history with Russia would mean President Vladimir Putin would come knocking on their doors next.

Apart from being Ukraine’s most pronounced fear, it’s something Western leaders have  expressed on several occassions despite the Russian president’s  denial that he is not interested in anything beyond Crimea.

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt termed Putin’s involvement in Crimea as the ‘opening game’.

“I’m pretty convinced that his real agenda is not Crimea, but Kiev,” Bildt said.

According to Bildt, Russia’s unpredictability is worrying from not just a security standpoint, but also from a perspective of nation’s dealing with respect to business.

“If there is one thing businessmen want, they want predictability,” said Bildt. “And now Russia is one of the most unpredictable places that you can find around the world. That’s going to have a significant economic impact over time.”

The fear expressed by Western stakeholders may seem justified considering the Russian parliament’s ratification of the proposal to annex Crimea, but for many these fears are unfounded.

A recent piece in Jerusalem Post explains why Russia’s incursion into Crimea has nothing to do with the West:

"…America has been treating Russia’s Ukrainian intrusion as if it had taken place outside Russia’s natural sphere, and as if it had been not about nationalism, but about the Communist International trying to spread Marxism. In fact, Russia has long ceased to defy America’s economic interests, and what it is seeking in Ukraine is its own broken soul."

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For many others, Putin's involvement in Ukraine is justified. The reasoning isn’t that Moscow has a right on nations previously part of Soviet Russia, but rather the West's failure to cultivate a reputation that counters the perception that it is imperialistic.

Watch the Carl Bildt’s complete interview here.