Anton Shekhovtsov
PhD UCL SSEES, visiting professor at CEU, director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity, author of books "Russia and the Western Far Right" and "Russian Political Warfare", columnist for EUObserver @euobserver.bsky.social, outdoor research fellow
- Putin has no ideology; he is, in fact, an intellectually unsophisticated person. His entire political worldview rests on two very simple narratives. 1/9
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View full threadThose in the West who believe peace can be secured by surrendering Ukraine to Russia fundamentally misunderstand the hierarchy in Putin’s thinking: the destruction of Ukraine is a tactical objective, not the strategic aim of his war. 8/9
- Those who do grasp this hierarchy understand that Western support for Ukraine need not necessarily be rooted in sympathy for the Ukrainian national project – it is, first and foremost, a matter of Western strategic self-interest. 9/9
- Such a blow, in their logic, would inevitably weaken the West and improve the prospects for further Russian retaliatory efforts. 6/9
- Ukraine is therefore not the primary target of Russia’s geopolitical revisionism – the West is. The destruction of Ukraine is merely a means of striking at the West without confronting it directly. 7/9
- There have been various attempts to “intellectualise” Putin’s thinking by linking him to Ivan Ilyin, Alexander Dugin, and the like – but it is all utterly excessive: all of Putin’s statements about the West and the war ultimately boil down to those two simple ideas. 4/9
- Yet despite their simplicity, these notions are deadly. If Ukraine is seen as an instrument of the West in its perennial war against Russia, then the Russian leadership views it as an imperative to destroy that instrument – thereby striking an indirect blow against the West itself. 5/9
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- In my recent essay, I traced the origins of these ideas to Putin’s teenage years and his fascination with Soviet spy thrillers, showing how his KGB service and specific events later solidified that basic worldview: shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/putins-gen... 3/9
- BREAKING: Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network spying against Ukraine - for the first time in the country’s history. 1/4
- “We need to denounce the double lie of the “Soviet victory over fascism” and “Soviet liberation of Europe”. We need to ultimately pronounce the USSR as the Third Reich’s equal partner in crime and condemn the Soviet occupation of European nations” shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/defeating-...
