the tragicomic Putin trinity “enjoys” every Sunday evening on television

Snyder characterizes Putin’s rhetoric with three sentences – Russia is innocent because of its ancient past. The existence of Ukraine is an international conspiracy. War is the answer.

On the other hand, the Atlantic Council’s article on Putin’s obsession with Ukraine states that “Putin’s obsession with Ukraine was fully revealed in a 5,000-word essay on the possible “historical unity” of Russians and Ukrainians, which was published in July 2021, just seven months before Russia Posing as both an amateur historian and an amateur philosopher, Putin conveniently ignored centuries of imperial oppression and expressed his belief that “true Ukrainian sovereignty is possible only in partnership with Russia.”

Putin, according to the article, has repeatedly accused modern Ukraine of occupying historical Russian lands and rejected any notion of a separate Ukrainian national identity, describing it as an artificial invention created by external forces in an attempt to weaken Russia from within.

Analyzing the reasons why Putin dislikes the neighboring country so much, the think tank emphasizes that democratic Ukraine is a much more legitimate country than autocratic Russia. Putin is well aware of this fact. He also understands that allowing a democratic Ukraine to gain strength and flourish will likely inspire Russians to seek similar changes in their own country. In other words, Putin sees the existence of a free and democratic Ukraine as an existential threat to the future of his own autocratic regime.

“From the point of view of the Russian ruler, an independent Ukraine is an intolerable reminder that democratic legitimacy is fully possible in the heart of the Slavs of the former USSR. If Ukraine is not destroyed, Putin fears that Russia itself may enter a new era of collapse, which will continue the process started in 1991,” the article emphasizes. authors.

At the same time, outlining the future scenarios of Russia, the “Atlantic Council” puts forward as the most likely version that Putin, if he is not affected by any unexpected health problems, will continue to rule in Russia for the foreseeable future. This, in turn, means the continuation of the war in Ukraine and the strengthening of repression in Russia.

The biggest problem is that the war is ideological fuel for Russia’s authoritarian regime. Paraphrasing the well-known saying – if there was no Ukraine, it would have to be invented.

The project is co-financed by the Media Support Fund from the funds of the Latvian state budget. The news agency “LETA” is responsible for the content of the “Behind the Curtain” project. #SIF_MAF2023