David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. He has written about Russian politics over many years. In this article, he analyzes Putin’s rationale for invading Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin delivered a bitter and delusional speech from the Kremlin this week, arguing that Ukraine is not a nation and Ukrainians are not a people. His order to execute a “special military operation” came shortly afterward. The professed aim is to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” this supposedly phantasmal neighbor of forty million people, whose government is so pro-Nazi that it is led by a Jewish President who was elected with seventy per cent of the vote…
Putin, who blames Gorbachev for defiling the reputation and the stability of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin, the leader who succeeded him, for catering to the West and failing to hold back the expansion of nato, reveres strength above all. If he has to distort history, he will. As a man who came into his own as an officer of the K.G.B., he also believes that foreign conspiracy is at the root of all popular uprisings. In recent years, he has regarded pro-democracy protests in Kyiv and Moscow as the work of the C.I.A. and the U.S. State Department, and therefore demanding to be crushed. This cruel and pointless war against Ukraine is an extension of that disposition. Not for the first time, though, a sense of beleaguerment has proved self-fulfilling. Putin’s assault on a sovereign state has not only helped to unify the West against him; it has helped to unify Ukraine itself. What threatens Putin is not Ukrainian arms but Ukrainian liberty. His invasion amounts to a furious refusal to live with the contrast between the repressive system he keeps in place at home and the aspirations for liberal democracy across the border.
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, has behaved with profound dignity even though he knows that he is targeted for arrest, or worse. Aware of the lies saturating Russia’s official media, he went on television and, speaking in Russian, implored ordinary Russian citizens to stand up for the truth. Some needed no prompting. On Thursday, Dmitry Muratov, the editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that he would publish the next issue in Russian and Ukrainian. “We are feeling shame as well as sorrow,” Muratov said. “Only an antiwar movement of Russians can save life on this planet.” As if on cue, demonstrations against Putin’s war broke out in dozens of Russian cities. Leaders of Memorial, despite the regime’s liquidation order, were also heard from: the war on Ukraine, they said, will go down as “a disgraceful chapter in Russian history.” ♦
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Putin takes the rational out of rationale. His “rationale” for invading Ukraine is despicable, evil and inhumane. His armies are hitting residential areas with cluster bombs and vacuum bombs. Russia’s terrifying “vacuum bombs” that can explode victims’ lungs have been deployed near Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, in the latest indication that Vladimir Putin is escalating the conflict. What’s next, tactical nuclear “devices?” Putin should rot in hell but that would be too good for him.
Hell doesn’t want him. There must a special pen for Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler. He can go there.
Thank you, Diane Ravitcg âYour âCommentaryâ is the first one I look for ⦠daily â or as often as your âcommentary/informationIs printed. (âoftenâ I plan to write and thank you⦠but, just as âoftenâ I start and donât finish. Anyway, itâs clear, that your âarticlesâ (commentary) will continue -since it is your favorite activity and mine,and we all rely on it⦠ Again, thank you ⦠donât âretireâJ. Ellingston (91 yrs. Old) Sent from Mail for Windows From: Diane Ravitch’s blogSent: Tuesday, March 1, 2022 11:02 AMTo: jellygreen3@gmail.comSubject: [New post] David Remnick: Putinâs Assault on Ukraine dianeravitch posted: " David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. He has written about Russian politics over many years. In this article, he analyzes Putinâs rationale for invading Ukraine. Vladimir Putin delivered a bitter and delusional speech from the Kremlin this w"
This isn’t the Marvel Universe. It’s not bad guys plotting to take over the world (bwahahaha!) and good guys working to defeat the for the good of the free world.
As a historian, you should understand that history is a series of actions and reactions. Things don’t happen in a vacuum. There is always context. Said context may or may not justify the action taken, but you can’t just throw it all out as “Russian disinformation”.
Scott Ritter earned his stripes trying to tell the world that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. He was right then and he has some important things to say now. Also, look up the work of the late respected scholar Stepen Cohen who warned years ago of exactly this situation if NATO kept advancing toward Russia in violation of their agreement. The U.S. would have done far more than Putin is doing if the situation were reversed.
None of this is to say that Putin is a good guy or that the invasion is justified. It takes two to tango.
Dienne, you are ridiculous. So you counsel to sit tight until Putin has killed every Ukrainian who doesn’t want to be under his thumb and destroyed every building? Bloodthirsty much?
Listening to dienne77 lecturing Americans that we should sacrifice the lives of Ukraine families and children for our own self-interest tells you that her faux concern for human rights was just a way to justify her hatred of the Democrats. You are right to call her bloodthirsty.
Her professed position – a progressive who only saw evil in the Democratic party and never in the Republican party and definitely never in Trump – did not make any sense.
But now it does. She was always just here posting whatever the pro-Putin line was.
Why does dienne77 have more sympathy for wealthy Russian students who might have to return home to their wealthy Russian parents than she does for the dying children of Ukraine? Something is really off.
dienne77 would never criticize Trump nor Putin.
“None of this is to say that Putin is a good guy” is not criticism when you can’t actually say that Putin is a bad guy.
And dienne77 is obviously not allowed to say Putin is a bad guy.
If Putin a bad guy? Not according to dienne77. dienne77 is fine with the children of Ukraine being bombed by Putin, but what upsets her very much is even the thought that wealthy Russian students whose parents are in favor with Putin might have to go home to their parents in Russia. dienne77 is more outraged that someone even suggested that than she is about Putin is KILLING Ukraine children.
I have to believe she is a troll, because what parent could be so cavalier with the lives of the children of Ukraine.
Dienne is not the only pro-Putin “progressive,” as demonstrated by the articles she and others post. These folk think that Putin has a right to rule Ukraine, whether they like it or not. Any genuine uprising against Czar Putin must have been financed by the evil U.S. They do not accept the possibility that the people of Ukraine should make their own decisions.
If they love Putin, they are surely not showing it now.
I think the argument is that this war could have been prevented if all sides would have worked to convince Ukraine that it’s in everybody’s best interest, especially in Ukraine’s best interest, to be a neutral country, similar to Switzerland, rather than pushing them towards NATO. Being a sovereign nation sounds great on paper, but every country’s possibilities in practice are determined by geopolitics.
The above doesn’t imply by any means that Putin has any right to do what he does in Ukraine. Given the fact that Russians (not just Putin) are worried about their borders all the time, and they do not trust the West one bit, it’s not wise to lecture them about the principles of sovereignty. It appears that a more effective strategy is to calm the beast rather than egg it on with canceled missile treaties, advancing NATO borders, and lectures about proper world-views.
The reason NATO borders expanded was because the former Soviet satellites asked to join. They wanted NATO’s protection. The US did not push or cajole them to join. I watched a ZOOM yesterday with the very wise Prime Minister of Lithuania. No question that they sought NATO membership. If/when Putin seizes control of Ukraine, Russia will border Lithuania. Should they be worried?
“If/when Putin seizes control of Ukraine, Russia will border Lithuania. Should they be worried?”
Yes. The same will apply to Hungary, since it has common borders with Ukraine. There will be huge pressure to erect missiles all over Hungary which I think will endanger the country.
Mate,
Given that Russia expanded its “borders” when it invaded Crimea, and had no pushback, I think Putin’s worry about his borders sounds about as reasonable as Hitler’s.
In fact, one could also say that this war is because Putin got no pushback when he tried it before.
Or it could just be because Putin is a murderous thug who kills those who threaten his power and arrests people who hope for democracy.
The fact that Ukraine was “neutral” did not stop Putin from taking Crimea, so invoking that reason seems very suspect.
Yeah it sounds ridiculous to make all countries bordering Russia to be neutral just to calm Putin. But putting missiles that are aimed at Russia in all these countries would bring the Cold War era back. Hopefully there are other military means to protect those border countries.
Even progressives like Matt Taibbi, a long-time defender of Russia, has admitted that Putin needs to be stopped.
No doubt. When I look at the movies on Netflix, many of them are about snipers and assassins; more or less glorifying this apparenly important profession. But where are they when it comes to stopping madmen state leaders?
Let’s not equate progressivists with Russia apologists.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-are-we-in-ukraine/
Dienne, the entire Ukrainian nation is resisting Putin’s aggression. Does that count for nothing?
Putin is cut from the same cloth as Stalin and Hitler. He needs lebensraum. This war on Ukraine was provoked by what?
I think what you are saying is that the people of Ukraine have no right to a voice in how they are governed. In 1991, all the Soviet satellites voted on their future. Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly to be a sovereign nation. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up its large stockpile of nuclear weapons in exchange for recognition of its sovereignty. Russia signed the Budapest Agreement, as it was called.
In the last presidential election, Zelensky won with nearly 80% of the vote.
Yet you advise them to return to Putin because they don’t deserve self-determination and because Putin doesn’t like that they are free to decide their own government.
I know an author/scholar who is working on a historical fiction novel set in Stalin’s Russia. The details of the major historical characters of the time are incredibly revealing. I think Morgan earned her PhD with a focus on Russia.
I asked if she could somehow throw a young Putin into the story. She said she’d think about it and added that Putin’s father was Stalin’s cook or one of his cooks. The problem there is that Putin was born in 1952 and Stalin died i 1953.
Since Morgan hasn’t finished her historical fiction novel yet, I don’t know if it ends when Stalin’s death or later. Her primary POV characters are Molotov, Beria, and Beria’s wife.
Beria died in the 1950s, too, but Molotov and Beria’s wife lived on for decades into their 80s or older. The author shared one chapter with our critique group that may end up being chapter one, and the POV character in that scene was Nina, Beria’s wife.
From what I’ve been reading, if Putin’s father was a trusted, loyal thug and cook for Stalin, that explains why Putin is a monster, too. There are a lot of monsters at the top that ruled Russia during Stalin’s era. And all those monsters feared each other and Stalin. No one trusted anyone. If Putin is even half of the monster Beria was, then we may be in for a nuclear war.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/ukraines-deadly-gamble?fbclid=IwAR3oq3Wq4n9MMDR0XDPdvUFiv27VyWkS_4MtDmqiRvlXiFsg9e2ghYHuFNw
Another interesting point of view.
That was a good article, along with the video above of Scott Ritter.
“Much of that same Obama foreign policy team—Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, and others—is now back in the White House and State Department working in senior posts for a president who personally ran Obama’s Ukraine policy.” Seems familiar to Nixon’s team who ended up under Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Apparently you don’t believe in letting the voters of Ukraine make their own decision. Why not just do whatever Putin wants?
Ted,
How did you like the author’s book bashing BLM as “coordinated riots laying waste to US cities” and making Devin Nunes into a hero who is saving America from the evil enemies within (progressives)?
You don’t get to pick and choose from what a known liar says and decide that something a known liar says is “interesting”.
A known liar has no credibility. Do you also find things that Tucker Carlson says “interesting”?
I assume that you do, since he and this author say the same things.
I thought the history of Ukraine was interesting, since it is not emphasized in US schools. And if the CIA and state dept. had any hand in destabilizing and leading to a vacuum, like South Vietnam or Afganistan.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-divided-over-legacy-of-nazi-fighters/
Anyone who thinks that the CIA has not played a role in recent Ukrainian history is naive. But that doesn’t change the indisputable fact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and bombing of civilians is inexcusable, literally criminal under international law.
An interesting view but in persuasive. The US did not persuade Ukraine to become an independent nation in 1994: its voters did.
On what evidence does he base his assertion that the U.S. created the Maidan Rebvoltion of 2014? Watch the film “Winter on Fire” and ask yourself why so many Ukrainians risked their lives to persuade the Putin puppet to resign. The protestors were unarmed. With US money, they would have had weapons.
Like Putin, the writer can’t believe that the people of Ukraine won’t to decide their own future, not nestle in Putin’s cold embrace.
OMG that Tablet Magazine article!!! This is how propaganda works. This was a link to one of the most untrustworthy right wing Trump-loving writers in this country. Linking to that article is like linking to Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity! It’s just that people don’t realize this author lies as much as Hannity and Carlson.
Two other books by this “esteemed” author, Lee Smith:
The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President
The author’s book is described this way:
“From the phony Russia collusion narrative to the coordinated riots laying waste to US cities, it’s the same ongoing operation orchestrated by the left and targeting not just President Trump but hundreds of millions of Americans who revere their country and what it stands for. For the first time, crusading investigative journalist Lee Smith reveals who was responsible and the never before known involvement of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and senior military officials who engineered a coup against a sitting president. ”
“Lee Smith brings to this story the same incisive reporting and commentary that distinguished his runaway bestseller, The Plot Against the President.”
FYI, The Plot Against the President did NOT have “incisive reporting”.
Here is the subtitle of The Plot Against the President”:
“The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History
DEVIN NUNES!!!!!
This is how propaganda works on good people. They read stuff that they would never trust if it was posted under the name Sean Hannity, but it is a person who is jjust another Sean Hannity.
By the way, the “coordinated riots” this writer refers to are the Black Lives Matters protests after George Floyd, so when you give this man legitimacy, it is basically giving the racist views legitimacy and amplify and raising the profile of the peoople who call the entire BLM movement part of “coordinated riots laying waste to US cities”.
Anything endorsed by the man who believes Devin Nunes is a truth-teller is a sure sign that all arguments defending Putin are as weak as Devin Nunes.
From wikipedia: Russia (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation,[c] is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world by area, covering over 17,125,191 square kilometres (6,612,073 sq mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth’s inhabitable landmass. end quote
Oh poor Russia, boo hoo, so afraid of being swallowed up by the Ukrainian juggernaut.
Even Russian citizens are demonstrating against the invasion of Ukraine, and they risk arrest and harsh treatment by the police and Putin’s goon squads. All the blame goes on Czar Vlad, period full stop. This was his decision as leader of the largest country on earth (by land mass), stop making excuses for this sociopath.
I pray that we shall see the emergence of a world in which
1.any nation that violently violates the territorial integrity of a U.N. member state, and
2. any nation that kills the civilians of another U.N. member state
except in self-defense and in a manner proportional to the last resort defensive necessity, will have committed war crimes and will be stopped by an armed international force directed by the General Assembly, and
Any leader who orders or directs these things will be considered a war criminal to be captured and tried by the International Criminal Court.
This would apply to Russia and China and the United States and every other country in world.
Whataboutism regarding past violations of the principles by the United States are irrelevant to what is happening in Ukraine right now. Here are the incontrovertible facts: Putin has broken international law by violating the territorial integrity of another U.N. member state. Forces under Putin’s direction are shelling civilians and killing children. (If you think this justifiable under the circumstances, tell that to the parents of those innocents.) Putin is attempting to bring about regime change in another U.N. member state via violence, in contravention of the will of the Ukrainian people. These are war crimes, and Putin is a war criminal.
cx: is irrelevant
Bob, even mass murderers are studied to find out their motivation, their aspirations. This is done so that the next one’s actions can be prevented or at least limited. It’s a triviality that Putin’s actions must be condemned. Those who are trying to do more and try to understand his actions, his motivations are not necessarily apologists. They may try to figure out how to prevent people like Putin to rise to power again.
In the US we have a system that allowed a Trump, a man made of the same material as Putin, to seize power. Have we succeeded in adjusting our system enough to prevent the next Trump to emerge? What we seem to be doing is helplessly watch the Putins and Trumps to rise to power, rather easily expolit their local system tocommit criminal acts, and then we condemn whatever criminal act they do, but the process repeats itself ad infinitum.
It appears to me that all we can do is stand by as Putin does whatever he feels like doing in Ukraine. Ukraine gets as much help in their fight against Russia as Poland got during WWII when it got invaded by Germany from the West and the Soviet Union from the East.
Wise, Mate, as usual.
Have we succeeded in adjusting our system enough to prevent the next Trump to emerge?
No. I fear that exactly the opposite is the case, that we are looking at a Republican sweep in the midterms and at a smarter but equally immoral Trumpish cretin becoming president in 2024. I hope that I’m wrong about that.
Bob, the best hope for the midterms is that the GOP will have a circular firing squad. Internecine battles between the MAGA devotees and the few but influential Republicans who still have integrity. Or if not integrity, a measure of sanity.
Yes.
And it grieves me that ordinary Russians and Russian conscripts will pay heavy prices for Putin’s criminal actions.
I’m already reading sickening stuff from apologists about how the Iraq Wars were so much more humanely carried out–typically ones say that our methods were targeted. This is what the Iraqi Body Count Project has to say:
According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, American and Coalition forces had killed at least . . . 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists.
The IBC project has been criticized by some, including scholars, who believe it counts only a small percentage of the number of actual deaths because of its reliance on media sources. The IBC project’s director, John Sloboda, has stated, “We’ve always said our work is an undercount, you can’t possibly expect that a media-based analysis will get all the deaths.”
Of course, those numbers don’t include the long-term deaths from radiation exposure due to the use of munitions coated in depleted uranium.
And all this was done on the pretext of WMDs that didn’t exist.
It wasn’t OK when we did it. It’s not OK now that Putin is doing it.
“His invasion amounts to a furious refusal to live with the contrast between the repressive system he keeps in place at home and the aspirations for liberal democracy across the border.”
Not a refusal . An inability to live with a Democratic Neighbor with Russian speakers and Russian relatives. Especially one that became more economically prosperous.
Actually very rational on his part.