ALEXANDER MOTIL

Sometimes I feel sorry for Putin. Lives in the XXI century, and thinks in terms of pharaohs. He wants to create a great Moscow empire without realizing that the Zeitgeist is nationalist

Empires found themselves in the dustbin of history, because they completely defeated the ideas of Johann-Gottfried von Herder.

The whole world strives for a particular identity and believes that each identity is a unique contribution to human spiritual culture. Therefore, everyone is convinced that every nation, every ethnic group, every race has the right to self-determination. Even non-imperial supranational giants such as the European Union crack under the influence of national identities and aspirations. It does not matter whether these aspirations are real, they will end in success or failure.

The main thing is that nationalism excludes empires, which the poor Vladimir Vladimirovich still did not understand. And I would. Yet it was thanks to the national movements that the Soviet Union collapsed, that the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese empires ceased to exist. As a graduate of the KGB, he should have known that the Soviet Union supported national liberation movements in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. By the way, the Communists even offered African Americans to create their own state. And Putin himself witnessed the strength of national liberation movements in Eastern Europe in 1989. Of course, all this frightened him madly, because it led to the “greatest tragedy of the twentieth century” – the death of the USSR, or Russia.

In fact, his behavior is pathetic. It is held by pieces of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. He is trying to turn Belarus into a colony. Holds troops in Armenia and Tajikistan. Planes violate the borders of Estonia. He went to Kazakhstan with his soldiers. Perhaps he is preparing an offensive against Ukraine and dreams of an Anschluss in northern Kazakhstan. It gives ultimatums to America and Europe, even if the Russian economy is at the level of the Benelux or Texas countries. No, his behavior is more than pathetic – it is pathetic, it would be even ridiculous, if not for the likelihood of further misanthropic consequences of his peaceful policy.

THE MORE PUTIN REALIZES HIS IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, THE MORE CENTRIFUGAL FORCES THERE WILL BE AND THE WEAKER THE EMPIRE ITSELF WILL BE. THE END IS INEVITABLE. PUTIN DOES NOT SEE THIS, IS PROUD OF HIS PIECES AND MISSILES, DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THAT HE IS SITTING ON AN EXPLOSIVE AND PLAYING WITH MATCHES

but his ambitions are doomed, because the national spirit is incompatible with imperial projects. Under that view, Putin is a typical post-Stalinist Soviet leader. Like Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev, he does not understand the national question, he believes that a “Soviet man” can be created, he does not see that the empire itself inevitably provokes and strengthens the nationalisms of controlled peoples, that it creates its own graveyards. It was not some mythical foreign power or notorious American imperialism that led to the uprisings in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Poland in 1956, 1968, 1976 and 1981, and throughout Eastern Europe in 1989-1991. -x.

And it was not foreign agents who caused color revolutions. That is why the uprisings in Belarus and Kazakhstan are so important. We are used to considering Belarusians and Kazakhs as unpretentious people who want peace above all and love their leaders. No one expected the Belarusian uprising in 2020 and the current Kazakh uprising. And then suddenly, despite our false hopes, Belarusians and Kazakhs rose. They declared themselves, showed that they are not sheep, but nations.

Mass demonstrations in Belarus ended in mass repression. A similar scenario is probably waiting for the Kazakhs. But the same was true in Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Comrades Rakoshi, Honecker, Gerek, and Jaruzelski were also considered invincible – until they were naked kings doomed to political death.

Putin, of course, believes that he will win by rebuilding the empire, that his Russia has become a world power that cannot be resisted. But it will be difficult to swallow Belarus completely, especially when half the population hates it. It will be even more difficult with Kazakhstan and Ukraine, where nations have some anti-imperial historical experience. Conclusion: the more Putin puts his imperial ambitions into practice, the more centrifugal forces there will be, the stronger the anti-Russian nationalisms and the weaker the empire itself. The end is inevitable. Putin does not see this, he is proud of his pieces and rockets, he believes that Pharaoh’s policy guarantees success in the 21st century, he does not understand that he is sitting on an explosive and playing with matches. And he does not understand that he is therefore a decidedly inadequate leader for modern Russia. The blacksmith, as they say, forges the horse, and the frog puts his foot. 

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In one of his recent appearances on YouTube, Yevgeny Fyodorov, a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, suggested launching a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” on the United States. According to him, it is necessary to strike with strategic missiles (with a nuclear or conventional combat unit) at a military training ground in Nevada, having warned the American authorities in advance. According to the deputy, in this way Moscow will hold a “very good action to demonstrate the seriousness of its intentions” in the context of recent Russian ultimatums and in response to the “tanks near Narva.” As Fedorov stressed, Russia “has the right to liquidation in accordance with international law.” However, at the same time as potential objects, he mentioned “American military laboratories where the coronavirus is produced.”

https://tyzhden.ua/Columns/50/254132