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Good Thursday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill’s Top Opinions.

The anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is approaching, but the Kremlin’s ambitions may not stop at the beleaguered former Soviet republic, writes former Ambassador William Courtney.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made many imperialist claims over the last 20 years, which Courtney enumerates while explaining why several of Russia’s neighbors – the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Moldova and Georgia – are at risk.

Courtney, a former U.S. ambassador to both Georgia and Kazakhstan, thinks whether Putin moves on any of these countries may hinge on the outcome of the current war. “Especially if the Kremlin managed to portray the war as a success,” he writes, “it might be emboldened to employ force against other neighbors.”

Read Courtney’s op-ed here.

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MORE TOP OPINIONS

4 reasons for the MAGA House hearings’ bellyflop

By AUSTIN SARAT, law professor, and DENNIS AFTERGUT, former federal prosecutor

It is sad for the country that House Republicans appear to have learned nothing from the evidence-based hearings of the Committee to Investigate Jan. 6. Those hearings were convincing, in large measure, because the televised testimony came entirely from witnesses of the party out of power. We can only hope that the scathing reviews of these new committees’ opening acts will prompt a return to authentic oversight.

Read the op-ed here

For better defense spending, split the Pentagon's budget into two

By MACKENZIE EAGLEN, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

It is time for the federal government to separate the Defense Department’s capital and operating budgets. By moving important and necessary funds for pay and benefits, for example, into direct (mandatory) spending, policymakers will have a more clear understanding of where defense dollars go and how much of the defense budget actually buys direct military capability. 

Read the op-ed here

How the diploma divide splits both parties

By WILL MARSHALL, founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute

President Biden’s “blue collar agenda for rebuilding America” is rhetorically on point but doesn’t go nearly far enough. To build a bigger and more ideologically balanced coalition, Democrats should embrace cultural moderation and put non-college voters’ aspirations for economic opportunity and upward mobility at the center of their governing agenda.

Read the op-ed here

Biden and NATO should do what it takes to stop Putin in Ukraine

By NEIL BARON, former adviser to the Securities and Exchange Commission

If Russia prevails in Ukraine without having to confront the West’s full military might, troops included, it could embolden Putin to invade NATO members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Like Ukraine, they were formerly part of the Soviet Union and are home to many ethnic Russians. All three fear an invasion is likely.

Read the op-ed here

QUICK TAKES

• Is the US ready to address China’s threats in time to make a difference?

• Make no mistake, China’s cold war against the West is heating up

• Support to Ukraine continues to be for America first

   

• Israel shouldn’t cherry-pick the American model in its judicial debate

The Hill's Top Opinions is written by Daniel Allott, an opinion editor at The Hill and the author of “On the Road in Trump’s America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation.”

Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill.

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