Poutine et la guerre des cinq mers

Since coming to power, Vladimir Putin has pursued a plan that is as ambitious as it is little known in the West: to connect and control the "five seas" at Russia's borders in order to establish his country's maritime power. This project, established by Tsar Peter the Great at the end of the 17th century, led to the attack on Georgia by Russian troops in 2008. The large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 serves the same purpose. It enabled Putin to seize the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. The port of Odessa, which is still resisting, is another priority target. The occupation of Crimea in 2014, as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which erupted again in 2020 between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, with highly interested Russian mediation, are part of the same strategy.