Madeleine Albright’s final prophecy: Russia’s war on Ukraine

Madeleine Albright, the former United States Secretary of State who died at age 84 on Wednesday, had reportedly predicted Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Albright was also one of the first senior officials to meet Russia’s new leader Vladimir Putin in 2000. 

A day before Russia invaded Ukraine last month, Albright wrote in the New York Times. She explained how Putin’s choices will ensure that Russia would be “diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable in the face of a stronger, more united Western alliance”, according to reports from CNN.

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“Ukraine is entitled to its sovereignty, no matter who its neighbors happen to be. In the modern era, great countries accept that, and so must Mr. Putin”, the former Secretary of State wrote in what is assumed to be one of her last official publications. 

“That is the message undergirding recent Western diplomacy. It defines the difference between a world governed by the rule of law and one answerable to no rules at all.”

What did former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright think about Vladimir Putin?

After meeting Russia’s incoming leader Putin, Albright first appreciated his “can-do approach”, according to media reports. However, speaking her mind in the New York Times piece last month, Putin was described as “small and pale” and “so cold as to be almost reptilian.”

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“Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness”, Madeleine Albright wrote in the publication. 

Albright, who served as the Secretary of State under then-President Bill Clinton, also spoke out against Russia’s annexation of Crimea and called him “delusional.”

Two years after the annexation, in 2016, Putin was tagged as a “smart, but a very bad person.”