Combine Putin’s utter lack of scruples/decency/humanity with Russia’s overwhelming military superiority, and the result of the invasion of Ukraine is almost inevitable: Russia “wins”.
However, ultimately, Russia loses; almost as inevitable as its initial “success” is Russia’s eventual failure – an inability to rule Ukraine, the collapse of Russia’s economy, and a decline in the “greatness” of Russia as a “world” power.
This post links to two of the better articles that seek to explain the nature of Putin’s miscalculation, and how “success” can be just another word for failure.
Australia’s influence on all the above is marginal, at best.
In David Rowe, however, Australia may well have the current world’s most potent political cartoonist; his “The Waiters” – atop this post – was published in The Australian Financial Review of 23rd February 2022, before the invasion-proper.
A question:
Does the Cossack heritage still influence Ukraine’s culture, at least as far as the perception of power and those who possess it are concerned?
According to Anton Olenik’s essay, published today in The Conversation, The fierce resistance Ukrainian forces are showing against their Russian invaders suggest it might.
Historically as well sociologically informed, Olenik’s essay contends that Russians and Ukrainians regard power/governance in such fundamentally different ways that Putin will be unable to rule Ukraine.
Click here to read it.
Also worth reading in full is historian Yuval Noah Harari’s “Why Vladimir Putin Has Already Lost This War”, published today in The Guardian.
An extract:
Hatred is the ugliest of emotions. But for oppressed nations, hatred is a hidden treasure. Buried deep in the heart, it can sustain resistance for generations. To reestablish the Russian empire, Putin needs a relatively bloodless victory that will lead to a relatively hateless occupation. By spilling more and more Ukrainian blood, Putin is making sure his dream will never be realised. It won’t be Mikhail Gorbachev’s name written on the death certificate of the Russian empire: it will be Putin’s. Gorbachev left Russians and Ukrainians feeling like siblings; Putin has turned them into enemies, and has ensured that the Ukrainian nation will henceforth define itself in opposition to Russia.
Click this for the full article.