Commentary Late last year, U.S. secretary of state Anthony Blinken declared, “One country does not have the right to exert a sphere of influence. That notion should be relegated to the dustbin of history.” His words were directed at Russia after Moscow increasingly made it clear that it considers Ukraine to be part of Russia’s “near abroad” and thus part of Russia’s sphere of influence. This claim that spheres of influence are some sort of relic from the past has been further pushed by Washington establishment types like former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who in January stated, “Putin thinks as a kind of 18th-century or 19th-century leader about spheres of influence.” The agenda here, apparently, is to connect the idea of spheres of influence with Napoleonic-looking characters from the days of yore who believed in that old-fashioned spheres-of-influence stuff. Moreover, the implication is that the United States regime doesn’t maintain a sphere …
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