The Politics of the Ukraine Russian President’s Threats ‘Cold War Ghosts’ February 13, 2022 – Communist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to invade the Ukraine to prevent it from aligning with the Democratic west hearkens back to the east-west battle of a half century ago. “A lot of Cold War ghosts have been resurrected and scattered about,” Los Angeles Times Foreign Editor Jeffrey Fleishman said. “Is he willing to breach war to collect what the past has already taken from him?”