It might be better said that, rather than having "made the case", Putin advanced an argument based on revisionist history that fell just a bit short of crowning himself "Tsar of all the Russias". Putin has felt this sense of being robbed about the fall of the Soviet Union for a long time, and it wasn't actually a secret.In a fiery speech, President Vladimir Putin made the case that Ukraine is by history and makeup an integral part of Russia.https://t.co/Oz1k7cAOpH
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 21, 2022
It bothers me that people are framing recent events in contexts that are not complete because the story isn't recent, and address what Putin is doing in terms of what "the West", or particularly the current US administration, have or haven't done, which sometimes gets framed in the terms of "weakness" or "strength". It seems particularly hard for many of my fellow Americans to grasp that the world does not revolve around US politics. What we're looking at here is Russian imperialism.
This is something Putin wanted to do, and well, bucket list items do not cross themselves off. He benefits from the frame that he is reacting to the actions of other people; like all authoritarians, he uses the language of victimhood as justification for atrocity: "Look what you made me do."
No one made him do this. He is responsible for the invasion of the separatist regions, and there is no reason to believe he will stop there if you listen to what he is and has been actually saying.
4 comments:
you know, i ALWAYS thought chekov was JOKING about being "tsar of all the russias" in the TOS episode, who mourns for adonis
...and now i know that's an ACTUAL thing.
Gee, I wonder what the conversations in Taipei are like right now?
Russia has acknowledged China's similar claim over Taiwan in the same vein as Ukraine. Yet as I understand it, China's claim (decreed by Mao, and fuck him for a thousand years) is basically even stupider than Russia's claim on Ukraine, since the USSR was at least very temporarily successful. I think there are some differences between Xi and Putin, among them, I don't actually believe Xi is nuts, but I strongly suspect there is something wrong with Putin. I note Taiwan is consistent in calling out Russia for presenting the potential that China should act imperialistically with respect to Taiwan and also respects Ukraine's sovereignty. I support them and all free nations in the struggle against totalitarianism.
This is what patriotic Americans are supposed to do. I am so sorry that there are Americans that exist who don't get it. But I think they don't get it because they don't think freedom is an absolute around here, only license for very particular discontents (vide the convoy protests and 1/6 and their connections, though they would rather pretend they don't exist, or fail to confess that they are allowing the sentiments of Charlottesville and other examples of racist subculture being mainstreamed) I have a shit-ton to say about all that.
Sometimes I am appalled that the conservatives, who are supposed to know history because otherwise what are they conserving, are the ones taking a pickaxe to it, and that the ones who celebrated Reagan being at the helm when the Iron curtain finally rusted through, are the ones who valorize Putin for "toughness". But I know what happened. This is a cult of virility and white Christendom. I care about Taiwan, the Buchananist (yes, Uncle Pat) right won't care either way. That's how they bend the pretzel to pretend they are isolationists and anti-war. Every global monster gets their slice and we don't care so long as nothing interrupts the internal culture war.
Vide Rick Scott's manifesto, the GOP means a whole lot of internal culture war while their lot are ignoring or even supporting the envelopment of other authoritarians globally. Like, our global commitment to freedom and exceptionalism should be forgotten. I am affronted. I abjure them from the bottom of my soul. This is not my version of America. I support freedom, of religion, from religion, ethnic and social customs, gender expression and sexual diversity among all the reasonable human freedoms. And anyone who doesn't can go take a leap.
You are quite right on the "bucket list" comment.
Putin is 70. This is the culmination of his rule. His Peter the Great moment. His swan song. The gig that will seal his place in Russian history and Make Russia Great Again.
He's been very consistent on this. He spent 20 years building up their military so he could do just this sort of thing. It was near certain that once he sent that much heavy military to the border that he was going to go for it.
The US has been smart to send up all of the smoke signals so that the Russians do it, everyone will be watching.
(I actually think Taiwan is fairly safe while Russia, Europe and the USA go for another round of self-harm. China seems like a more patient country.)
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