There are sound historical reasons why Russia has been wary of the West, but under Putin's direction, the country has become a shrill, paranoid, and destructive dictatorship.
"For Russia’s current leader, who is the embodiment of five centuries of geopolitical realism, the West’s refusal to allow him to dictate the destinies of Russia’s neighbouring states ultimately convinced him that the only way to alleviate his security predicament was by the use of force."
That's ultimately the crux of Russia's security problem: the one thing they haven't tried is co-existing peacefully with the rest of the world instead of trying to dominate their neighbors. The invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 only came about after Russia's failure to control Ukraine via corrupt puppet leaders.
Even if one buys the 'justified fears' reading of history, Putin's predilection for, shall we say, 'preventative' aggression makes little sense. The surest defense against potential enemies is to turn them into friends; so a leadership that goes out of its way to turn its country into an international pariah is behaving self-sabotagingly from a security point of view.
Notwithstanding my fervent support of Ukraine, it is refreshing to hear something positive about Russia. May they fall flat on their babushkas in Ukraine.
There is nothing "quasi" about Putin's fascism. His pretext for invading Eastern Ukraine and Crimea since 2014, that of protecting ethnic Russians from "nazi" Ukrainians, is straight out of Hitler's playbook of absorbing the Sudetenland to protect ethnic Germans and invading Poland for the same purpose. Not to mention Putin's degrading and dismissing Ukrainians using the same terminology as Hitler did for "untermenschen" Slavs.
The best (and most fun) summary of the broader history of Russia's perpetual failure to become a "normal country" was this little book I found; I used to read this woman's blog with my partner (Russian, from Belarus), and we both enjoyed the observations on cultural differences and quirks she offered as an American married to a Russian.
Putin isn't an anomaly; rather, he reflects a stubborn societal norm - a deep cynicism that's (luckily) hard to explain to people used to our relative comfort here, but has (unfortunately) been getting easier for many to understand lately, as I wrote about recently here:
No sadly nothing good will happen in Russia. It is a kleptocracy where the rich take from the poor and it always has been.
That Russia should presume that it can just dictate the destiny of any other country, and that it should, is a sad statement about Russia. The largest country in the world with 4x the population of Canada and the same GDP can not even take care of itself and it's people feels the need to go beat up on some other country.
It's basket case economy should have convinced them they need to maybe take care of things at home but alas the leaders are not that smart and the people very dim witted. They are too used to being told what to do to think for themselves and the leaders too used to being able to beat up on them and the other unfortunates in Chechnya and George. The cost is the blood of Russian youth not to mention the Ukrainians. Of course Vlad does not care. What are Russian youth for if not to pump his glory.
People celebrated the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now they are not so sure. Just dumb.
The political opinions of the west tend to concentrate on the leader but miss the issue that the leader is necessarily a product of the opinions of at least a large segment of the population. Thanks for the deeper perspective!
"For Russia’s current leader, who is the embodiment of five centuries of geopolitical realism, the West’s refusal to allow him to dictate the destinies of Russia’s neighbouring states ultimately convinced him that the only way to alleviate his security predicament was by the use of force."
That's ultimately the crux of Russia's security problem: the one thing they haven't tried is co-existing peacefully with the rest of the world instead of trying to dominate their neighbors. The invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 only came about after Russia's failure to control Ukraine via corrupt puppet leaders.
Thx for a more thorough explanation of Russia and Putin than we typically see. Appreciated.
Even if one buys the 'justified fears' reading of history, Putin's predilection for, shall we say, 'preventative' aggression makes little sense. The surest defense against potential enemies is to turn them into friends; so a leadership that goes out of its way to turn its country into an international pariah is behaving self-sabotagingly from a security point of view.
Notwithstanding my fervent support of Ukraine, it is refreshing to hear something positive about Russia. May they fall flat on their babushkas in Ukraine.
There is nothing "quasi" about Putin's fascism. His pretext for invading Eastern Ukraine and Crimea since 2014, that of protecting ethnic Russians from "nazi" Ukrainians, is straight out of Hitler's playbook of absorbing the Sudetenland to protect ethnic Germans and invading Poland for the same purpose. Not to mention Putin's degrading and dismissing Ukrainians using the same terminology as Hitler did for "untermenschen" Slavs.
The best (and most fun) summary of the broader history of Russia's perpetual failure to become a "normal country" was this little book I found; I used to read this woman's blog with my partner (Russian, from Belarus), and we both enjoyed the observations on cultural differences and quirks she offered as an American married to a Russian.
https://www.amazon.com/Have-Personality-Disorder-Will-Russia-ebook/dp/B015HN9E5Q
Putin isn't an anomaly; rather, he reflects a stubborn societal norm - a deep cynicism that's (luckily) hard to explain to people used to our relative comfort here, but has (unfortunately) been getting easier for many to understand lately, as I wrote about recently here:
https://mustardclementine.substack.com/p/reminding-me-of-my-mother-in-law
No sadly nothing good will happen in Russia. It is a kleptocracy where the rich take from the poor and it always has been.
That Russia should presume that it can just dictate the destiny of any other country, and that it should, is a sad statement about Russia. The largest country in the world with 4x the population of Canada and the same GDP can not even take care of itself and it's people feels the need to go beat up on some other country.
It's basket case economy should have convinced them they need to maybe take care of things at home but alas the leaders are not that smart and the people very dim witted. They are too used to being told what to do to think for themselves and the leaders too used to being able to beat up on them and the other unfortunates in Chechnya and George. The cost is the blood of Russian youth not to mention the Ukrainians. Of course Vlad does not care. What are Russian youth for if not to pump his glory.
People celebrated the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now they are not so sure. Just dumb.
The political opinions of the west tend to concentrate on the leader but miss the issue that the leader is necessarily a product of the opinions of at least a large segment of the population. Thanks for the deeper perspective!