Re:Nord Stream 2 declares bankruptcy
by wewtyflakes on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @05:51PM
(#30521142)
Yes, and it seems to be "ego", which seems like a poor justification.
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It’s more about identity than about ego, I’d say. If Russia isn’t Russia anymore, if a large part (or, worse, all) of it gets westernized, if the Russian culture seemingly erodes, Putin’s life will turn out to have been meaningless. His self-worth is irreversibly tied to it. That’s why authoritarian leaders are generally unable to say “oh, I guess I was wrong after all”.
> If Russia isn’t Russia anymore, if a large part (or, worse, all) of it gets westernized, if the Russian culture seemingly erodes
What do you mean? You should have seen the surge of the Ukrainian culture in Ukraine after it westernized. After all, it's not the west that suppresses cultures in the region. If anything, it is the Russian regime.
From his article https://web.archive.org/web/20220227090945/http://en.kremlin...:
“The localization policy undoubtedly played a major role in the development and consolidation of the Ukrainian culture, language and identity. At the same time, under the guise of combating the so-called Russian great-power chauvinism, Ukrainization was often imposed on those who did not see themselves as Ukrainians. This Soviet national policy secured at the state level the provision on three separate Slavic peoples: Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian, instead of the large Russian nation, a triune people comprising Velikorussians, Malorussians and Belorussians.”
So he doesn’t like the alleged “Ukrainization”, and certainly not an additional westernization (you know, with gay people and such).
> Ukrainization was often imposed on those who did not see themselves as Ukrainians
That's a myth, a talking point in the Russian propaganda.
Of course! But my point is that Putin seems to truly believe in that portrayal. If you take what he writes in those essays and says in his speeches at face value, then you can see why he takes the actions he does.
Everyone’s actions can be understood by realizing what they feel and believe. That doesn’t justify the actions, but it explains them. Trying to understand what Putin is about is important to making predictions about how he will react to possible courses of action from the rest of the world.