Putin’s Imperial dream

 

Putin’s imperial dream

Russia’s leader continues to profess his goal of annexing Ukraine. Vladimir Putin believes its citizens should be part of one “Russian nation” and a wider “Russian world” including other non-East Slavic ethnicities in both modern Russia and the former territory of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

 

Russia 2053

Putin delivered that message again in a speech Tuesday at an event known as the World Russian People’s Council. By his way of thinking, current Russian citizens and “all other peoples who have lived and are living in [Russia]” make up Russia, which extends to “Russian compatriots” in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

 Why it matters: “Putin’s articulation of a Russian nation (including Ukrainians and dominated by Moscow) reiterates longstanding Kremlin justifications for its invasion of Ukraine and aggression toward its neighbors,” ISW writes; “and Putin’s claim that ‘western Russophobia’ affects all the ethnicities in the Russian state is likely intended to rally support among Russian citizens who are not ethnically Russian for Putin’s war.”