U.S. must be prepared for end of Russia as it looks today - Hodges

U.S. military goals should include “de-imperialization” of Russia.

That’s according to U.S. General Ben Hodges, former Commander EUCOM.

“I think that US war-aims for this conflict should include ‘de-imperialization’ of Russia.  It seems to me that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Russian Federation as it looks today. We need to be prepared for this...we were not prepared for the end of the USSR,” Hodges tweeted.

Read also: Kurt Volker calls for better countering of Russian hybrid operations

The tweet was a response to a statement by Kurt Volker, former ambassador to NATO and ex-top negotiator for Ukraine, that Russia’s “imperialist wars” against its neighbors had not started in Ukraine but had “happened” in Georgia, and “we can't forget that Russia is still in Georgia.”

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Ben Hodges suggests Moldova and Ukraine should jointly address the Transnistria issue as the Kremlin is now unable to hamper such efforts.