International security

Putin's geopolitical trolling: the strategy behind Russian jets buzzing a US destroyer

The point is that these sorts of low-level military provocations have become routine parts of Russian foreign policy — it's just something Putin does.

Why? Putin appears to see these provocations as a way to intimidate his adversaries in the West — namely, the US and NATO. The basic theory is that if he signals a willingness to risk conflict, the West will back down. Going to war with Russia would be objectively insane, so the idea is that if Putin seems crazy and eager to pick a fight, his adversaries won't be willing to risk it over, say, Ukraine or Syria — issues that are important but certainly not worth going to war with Russia over.

"His calculation appears to be that the scarier he seems, the more political traction he has," Mark Galeotti, a professor at NYU who studies Russia, wrote in a February piece forVox. "What the Kremlin does have is the will to take risks, ignore the rules, and hope that the other side is more sensible, more cautious, more willing to make concessions than it is to call Russia's bluff."