Putin Has a Grimly Absolute Vision of the 'Russian World'

[Celerity]

The Ukraine war is fuelled by a delusion of civilizational necessity.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/06/russia-putin-civilization/

https://archive.ph/xtkE4#selection-875.0-881.68



On Feb. 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely claimed that a Ukrainian “genocide” of Russian-speakers was happening in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine. He repeated that lie in his speech announcing the “special military operation” on Feb. 24 as his troops invaded Ukraine.

Putin believes an invasion of Ukraine is a righteous cause and necessary for the dignity of the Russian civilization, which he sees as being genetically and historically superior to other Eastern European identities. The idea of protecting Russian-speakers in Eurasia has been a key part of Putin’s “Russkiy Mir” worldview and 21st-century Russian identity. Under the rubric of Russkiy Mir (Russian World), Putin’s government promotes the idea that Russia is not a mere nation-state but a civilization-state that has an important role to play in world history.

Beginning in 2012, Putin began to refer to a distinct Russian civilizational identity and explained that “the self-definition of the Russian people is that of a multiethnic civilization.” Included within this civilizational framework are ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in former Soviet republics that extend beyond Russia’s national borders. In 2020, Putin appeared on state television and said that Russia’s unique civilizational identity needed to be protected via genetics and technological sophistication. This ideology positions contemporary Russia as a global bastion of traditional values and national conservatism. Most of all, it argues that the Kremlin has a duty and right to defend the interests and culture of Russian-speakers all over the world. Putin rejects the Westphalian state system for an irredentist vision of an expansionist Russian civilization.

While the Kremlin refers to the Ukrainian government as “Nazis,” the actual neo-fascist ideologues in this conflict are those in the Russian leadership. Beginning as far back as 1994, Russian political elites started talking about a uniquely Eurasianist Russian civilization. In 1997, Russian post-liberal, neo-fascist philosopher Alexander Dugin, later an advisor to Putin, published his foundational book, Foundations of Geopolitics. Referred to as Putin’s Rasputin, Dugin argues that the world order is shaped by competition between Sea Powers (Atlanticists), such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and the EU countries, and Land Powers (Eurasianists), such as Russia.

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