Putin has his ‘gun sight’ set on more countries than Ukraine, former NATO commander says

James Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander warned on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “had his gun sights” on ex-Soviet nations other than Ukraine, as Moscow continues its aggressive push into Kyiv.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral and senior executive at the Carlyle Group, said he was ‘very concerned’ that Putin would not stop at Ukraine.

‘He’s not going to strike a NATO country, in my opinion. However, Putin has his sights set on Moldova, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and other sovereign republics that were once part of the Soviet Union’ , according to Stavridis.

‘That’s where he’ll be heading next. That is something I am quite concerned about,’ he added. Kazakhstan and Belarus share Russian borders, whereas Moldova is located southwest of Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been a long-time ally of Putin’s, and last month he permitted Russian military to move into Ukraine from the north.

Stavridis did not include Estonia, Lithuania, or Latvia among Putin’s targets, according to Capehart.

Putin will likely hesitate from striking such nations because they are NATO members, according to Stavridis, who served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander from 2009 to 2013.