Although Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of conquest in Ukraine has failed spectacularly, he remains committed to the fantasy that the old Russian Empire can be recreated. That means neither Ukraine nor the rest of Europe will have peace until he and his political project are soundly defeated.
STOCKHOLM – In his annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that he will be ready for a peace settlement with Ukraine only after he has achieved his goals, which have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. He wants Ukraine to be demilitarized, meaning subjected to Russian military and security control of its territory; and he wants “denazification,” meaning Ukraine would be put under Russian political control. In other words, Russia would absorb Ukraine so that the latter ceases to exist as an independent nation-state.
Time and again, Putin has declared that there is no historical justification for Ukraine, since it comprises territories that were long held by the Russian Empire. But something similar can be said of countries across Europe today. Many previously fell under the yoke of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Wilhelmine, or Russian empires. And globally, the vast majority of the 193 countries that make up the United Nations became independent only in the aftermath of World War II. In the historical period that preoccupies Putin, many of today’s countries did not exist even in people’s imaginations.
The problem, for Putin, is that the age of empires is long gone. He stubbornly refuses to accept that we now live in the age of nation-states, with an international order organized around the UN Charter’s principle of territorial integrity, which prohibits any redrawing of national borders by force. Instead, he fantasizes about recreating the Russian Empire by swallowing up Ukraine and Belarus (followed, perhaps, by many other neighboring countries).
STOCKHOLM – In his annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that he will be ready for a peace settlement with Ukraine only after he has achieved his goals, which have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. He wants Ukraine to be demilitarized, meaning subjected to Russian military and security control of its territory; and he wants “denazification,” meaning Ukraine would be put under Russian political control. In other words, Russia would absorb Ukraine so that the latter ceases to exist as an independent nation-state.
Time and again, Putin has declared that there is no historical justification for Ukraine, since it comprises territories that were long held by the Russian Empire. But something similar can be said of countries across Europe today. Many previously fell under the yoke of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Wilhelmine, or Russian empires. And globally, the vast majority of the 193 countries that make up the United Nations became independent only in the aftermath of World War II. In the historical period that preoccupies Putin, many of today’s countries did not exist even in people’s imaginations.
The problem, for Putin, is that the age of empires is long gone. He stubbornly refuses to accept that we now live in the age of nation-states, with an international order organized around the UN Charter’s principle of territorial integrity, which prohibits any redrawing of national borders by force. Instead, he fantasizes about recreating the Russian Empire by swallowing up Ukraine and Belarus (followed, perhaps, by many other neighboring countries).