Peter J. Worswick
Executive Communication Coach | Helping Senior Professionals Communicate with Clarity, Confidence and Executive Presence | 30+ Years International Business Experience | 20+ Years Working In and With Ukraine
PJW International
United Kingdom
June 21, 2026
Let’s be honest about what Putin’s Russia actually is.
Not a state with grievances. Not a conservative bulwark against Western liberalism. Not a great power seeking its rightful place in a new world order.
It is an authoritarian system built by a small group of men, the Siloviki, drawn from Russia’s security services, military, and law enforcement, for the benefit of that group. Power concentrated, wealth extracted, dissent removed. That is not incidental to the system. It is the system.
Russia’s war on Ukraine did not come from nowhere. It came from the same place everything comes from in Putin’s Russia: the need to hold power, extend control, and eliminate anything that threatens either. A free, democratic, westward looking Ukraine on Russia’s border was not a security problem. It was an ideological one. It showed Russians that a different kind of future was possible. That example could not be allowed to stand.
The same logic runs through everything. Destabilisation operations across Europe. Mercenaries and mineral extraction in Africa. Interference in Western elections. Assassination attempts on foreign soil.
What makes this difficult for many in the West to understand is that we often analyse Russia as though it were pursuing outcomes in the way conventional states do. Territory, influence, negotiating positions, strategic advantage.
But systems built around preserving power do not always behave that way.
They can absorb economic pain that would be politically unacceptable elsewhere. They can treat negotiations as instruments rather than solutions. They can escalate when outsiders expect them to compromise. Survival of the system becomes more important than prosperity, normalisation, or even stability.
That helps explain why so many Western assumptions about Russia have repeatedly been proved wrong.
The language of sovereignty, tradition, and civilisational values sounds like ideology. That is the performance, the ideology is power and the rest is theatre.
Ukraine has never had the luxury of watching the performance and wondering whether it might be genuine. Neither have Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, or Georgia. Proximity has a way of stripping away illusions.
Their freedom endures not because the system accepts it, but because they have been willing to defend it.
And perhaps that is the lesson Europe still struggles to absorb. The countries that have spent the longest living with this reality understand it most clearly. The real tragedy is not that the warnings were unavailable, it is that they went largely unheard.
Comment from :
Christopher J. O’Shea
ONLY THE DECISIVE DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION’S ARMED FORCES IN UKRAINE WILL LEAD TO A JUST AND EQUITABLE PEACE, RUSSIAN ACCOUNTABILITY, AND A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR EUROPE AND THE WORLD.
Echoing another commenter: Muscovy did not change after 1991. Six months after the coup that brought down the USSR, the Kremlin was onto its next Occupation. We have the data. One only need to look at the daily news.
Connecting the dots of Russia’s Moldova Occupation
https://amaragraps.substack.com/p/connecting-the-dots-of-russias-moldova
The Red Army that was still in place in the Baltic countries provided a useful cover for a variety of continuing aggressions, against the Baltics and Russia’s other neighbors.
The Kremlin’s Useful Chaos: Troop Watch Data from the 1992-1994 Red Army Withdrawal from the Baltic Countries
How the Russian Orthodox Church Became A Weapon of Political Warfare
https://actionagainstchildabduction.com/ru-2026-04-01-putins-russia-vs-the-soviet-union/
Terrific read. Thank you for explaining for all those people who aren’t allowed to speak to us. It is amazing to me that the Russian citizens still keep their chins up. It truly is amazing. It really makes me respect the liberties that we have in North America.
Randal M. : – The majority of Russians support the war on Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian people who are amazing. Victory will be Ukraine’s.
The truly sad part of this is that their behaviour has not changed in over 120 years. Yet the EU politicians continue to look at Russia through a “Lens” which has zero relevance. The time for “Talking” has long since passed. Time to return to core principles and deal with reality.
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Delighted to be back!
LinkedIn recently detected some security issues related to access to my account and restricted it pending investigation. After going through their verification process I’m happy to now be fully reinstated.
A huge thank you to Christine Khariv who experienced similar technical issues accessing her account, and kindly let my connections know what was happening while I was offline.
It’s greatly appreciated! 🙏
“Power concentrated, wealth extracted, dissent removed. That is not incidental to the system. It is the system.”
Exactly what I think, only more elegantly put.
The ruling elite have to be extirpated and their dna rendered extinct.
The russian federation is an evil mafia entity that terrorizes others around it and within it. That’s putting it in a nutshell.