Russia will struggle to govern the four Ukrainian provinces annexed by Putin, according to a Washington think tank.
Russian authorities will « struggle to establish governance structures » over four annexed Ukrainian provinces due to « bureaucratic incompetence, » according to the Washington D.C. based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Vladimir Putin signed « accession treaties » merging Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson into the Russian Federation on Friday. This followed referendums in the four regions, which were dismissed as « rigged » and a « sham » by Western powers.
The move sparked a furious response from the world’s leading democracies, with the G7 group of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K and the U.S. issuing a joint statement saying they would « never recognize » the annexation, which they branded « a new low point in Russia’s blatant flouting of international law. » After the announcement fresh sanctions were imposed on Russia by the U.
