The Russian point of view and the destruction of Ukraine.

 Eternal peace lasts only until the next war. Russian proverb

On February 24, 2022, days after our article "the Putin Gambit", Russia announced the start of its "special operation" in Ukraine and launched the war that is now shaking the world. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the footage of the war in Ukraine was an old phrase that my old and wise grandma used to tell me "if you poke a bear you will get an answer and probably not a good one". 

In this article we will try to understand the bear, not by judging him but by putting ourselves in the bear skin and trying to comprehend what are the motivations and causes that made the bear lose his temper. We are going to focus on two main issues, the first one is the expansion of the NATO in the area of influence of Russia and the second one is the growth of neo-Nazi movements in Ukraine.

The expansion of NATO in the Russian backyard.


 Now if you been following the events in this part of the world you knew that the chances of this war were high in the previous months and can be foreseen for years, this is mainly because the rapid territorial and economic expansion carried out by NATO, slowly but surely since the fall of the USSR in Eastern Europe. NATO is seen by the Russians as a group of countries that are totally antagonistic to their model since its creation in the cold war it was based on the polarization of the world. 
The countries that make up this alliance, mainly the United States, have led Ukraine to a dead end, instead of helping Ukraine economically and seeing it as a neutral country, they encouraged it to challenge the bear, poke him in the head several times knowing that if the bear gets angry they will not going to be there to collaborate. 

The Russian position as a world power is being challenged by a border country that has been flirting with foreign powers for years and promises to buy their weapons in the future and install them in Russian borders, a very familiar situation that the United States lived with Cuba in the missile crisis. This is something that Russia cannot allow, as the United States with the "backyard" theory, traced an undisputed zone of influence in South America, the same thing Russia did with countries like Ukraine and the regions of Chechnya and most of the important countries that formed the URSS territories.

When Chechnya, by taking advantage of the bad moment of the new Russian republic, sought its independence, they met a young Putin who shed the blood of thousands of Chechens and left a clear message, Russia's backyard is a national priority for which he was willing to fight. 

Russia is experiencing a similar situation with Ukraine who is seeking an alliance with the west and trying to escape the Russia sphere. This time is different from Chechnya because all the world is watching and is sanctioning the Russian economy with enormous packages that will only take the situation to an escalation in the future. It's clear not only to me but to lots of people that Ukraine will be slowly destroyed for not staying neutral, Russia is behaving like a surrounded bear who seems invading and destroying Ukraine is the only way of surviving as a powerhouse.

The growth of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. 


The other situation that scares the Russian goverment and is not being porteayed as such in the media is the increasing popularity of fascit and neo-Nazi thinking in Ukraine, prior to analize this we need to remember that the Ukranians and the Russian togheter suffered lots from the nazi party and fought the  Germans all the way into Berlin in WW2 being the ones who destroyed the last bunch of German units and brought the end of the world. If you take this into account you will realize why the Kremlin fears the rise of "National Militias'', in Ukraine. This increment of neo-Nazi ideology was being displayed in full in 2014 when the forces of this groups helped to fight the russians. Putin took notice of this and said that is something that will harm them in the long run, today we are seeing the results. 

Personal opinion

Taking this into account I believe that Russia sees in destroying Ukraine the only way out of the war. Personally i'm opposed to this war and i think that Russia will suffer greatly from the economic side but I think that trying to understand Russia is extremely important because it allows us to look at the conflict from another point of view, distant from the main media.


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