With Vladimir Putin’s planned two-day war to topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government now in its third month and Russian casualties piling into the tens of thousands, concerns abound that Putin might take increasingly drastic steps to alter the disastrous situation he faces on the battlefield. To prevent those grim prospects—or at least contain their effects—President Joe Biden should turn to the playbook his predecessors drafted.

The Republic of Moldova is entering a new era after the events of June 2019, with the rise to power of Prime Minister Maia Sandu, the first woman to ever hold this position, and an agreement of sorts between Washington and Moscow to support the political changes that have been taking place within the landlocked southeastern European state over the last two months.