However, this scenario is still far from the complete Russian control over Ukraine, or a significant change in the position of Russia in Europe. It looks like a more temporary solution than Moscow wishes – or, as most practitioners of the Kremlin foreign policy admit, it is not Yalta.
But the truth is that this agreement is not really supposed to lead to lasting peace – it was never the goal. Trump can believe in his second American revolution, but his interlocutors in Moscow do not. They are much more convinced of the indestructibility of the deep state than any theorist in the conspiracy in the United States and they believe that this deep state has always been, and will always be, hostile to Russia.
In the absence of any true ideology, the Kremlin has reisitated its belief – a mixture of pride in the former Russian Empire, whether under the Tsars or the Soviet commissioners, and a strong feeling of grievance and injustice towards the dangerous West. And as for any ideology, it is delivered with a clear story about what has gone wrong and which is to blame.
An integral part of a part of this mentality is a strong feeling of history, understood as a collection of centuries of grievances, leading to the widespread belief that Russia is doomed to perpetually fight the West, in a form or Another, until a side reaches perpetually reaches the West, in a form or another, to a total victory side. And the Kremlin is certain that the West has always been after the complete destruction of Russia, starting with the Crusaders sent by the Pope to invade Orthodox Russia in the 13th century.
In short, real peace with the West is incompatible; Only periodic interludes are possible. And Russia, always a besieged fortress, cannot have real allies. The famous line attributed to Tsar Alexandre III at the end of the 19th century – that “Russia has only two allies, the armed forces and the navy” – was cited proudly and constantly, and it resonates deeply with Putin.
As a result of this story, Russia does not really feel like a world pariah either – not only because of the support it receives from China, but because its elites do not believe in the concept of real allies or the treaties of long date of such relationships allow.
Politices
