If President Putin believes he can hide the reason for his war, he will have to think again. It’s a well-documented event, now, that makes perfect sense on paper. His problem is that it will harm Russia’s progress in every other way.
Alexander Dugin, the Russian philosopher said to have spent time with Putin, is forthright in his own way about matters. His lecturing on Russia’s history and values is respected in his homeland and has some plaudits overseas.
“Russia was never fully colonised by the West. We resisted through all our history. We will do the same until the end of time. The West wants to annihilate us. We want just to limit its ambitions. And preserve our sovereignty and freedom. Our victory doesn’t mean the end of West.”
He’s recognisably Russian in every single way, emphasising his nationalist values with a verve only patriots have. The notion of demise is wholly rejected at the core of his thesis, and is in fact his main point as he argues his life’s work.
In Russia, the fear of failure looms large at the highest level of politics and everything the West does is looked at with suspicion, bordering on paranoia, because economic and social dynamism is a threat to its devotion to its own future.
The invasion of Ukrainian land adds to the complexity of Russia’s reach into Europe – and beyond. More people would be in range. More trouble would result out of it later. It’s not a prospect that can be ‘offered’ to a nation that would use it to press harder against us.