Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deployment of troops in two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing them independent has triggered sanctions from the US and its European allies and fears of war. Russia’s official position is that it is responding to threats to its own security from Ukraine’s increasingly close relations with the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).
But, on a deeper level, Putin’s Ukraine move is part of a bigger and desperate design to somehow attempt a reversal of the ‘humiliation’ that he felt at the collapse of the Soviet Union or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 .
In 2008, Putin publicly said he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he had a chance to alter modern Russian history. This was three years after he called the Soviet fall the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.
Putin, who served in the Soviet-era spy agency KGB and has been in power in Russia for more than two decades, has used the Soviet Union’s World War II defeat of Nazi Germany to stir patriotism and fuel dreams of a new Russian identity.
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THE RUSSIAN REGRET AND NOSTALGIA
The idea of reversing the collapse of the Soviet Union strikes a chord with millions of older Russians who regret the break-up and pine for the erstwhile social justice-oriented welfare system.
And their numbers have been rising under Putin, amid growing economic concerns. For years, Putin and many Russians have lamented the blow that the Soviet Union’s dissolution dealt to Moscow’s prestige and national identity.
WHY IT’S PERSONAL FOR PUTIN
In December 2021, Putin called the Soviet Union collapse the death of historical Russia and said the economic crisis that followed was so bad that he was forced to moonlight as a taxi driver.
“Sometimes, I had to moonlight and drive a taxi. It is unpleasant to talk about this but, unfortunately, this also took place,” Putin said in December.
What had been built up over 1,000 years was largely lost, he said. “Twenty-five million Russians in newly independent countries suddenly found themselves cut off from Russia, part of it was a major humanitarian tragedy.”
THE EURASIAN UNION PLAN
As per Putin’s vision for the future, Russian language, history and culture should dominate. He has also talked about his plan for a Eurasian Union linking Russia with other ex-Soviet republics, including those in Central Asia.
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THE UKRAINE CONTEXT
Ukraine was the largest of 15 Soviet republics and Putin says its people are an integral part of Russian history and culture. On the other hand, Ukraine calls this view a politically motivated and over-simplified version of history.
Russia captured Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and has backed separatists who control parts of eastern Ukraine and fight Ukrainian government forces.
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THE ROOT CAUSE OF CONFLICT
Ukraine is the largest country in Europe if one takes out Russia, which is spread over Asia as well. At the heart of this fast-escalating crisis is Russia’s disapproval of Nato’s expansion in its neighborhood since the late 1990s.
The US and Nato believe that countries should be free to join any alliance. Nato and the former USSR were engaged in what was called the Cold War for about 45 years in the game of geostrategic one-upmanship.
IS 1991 REVERSAL EVEN POSSIBLE?
Russia has asked the US and Nato to roll back their expansion in eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and other former Soviet states from the Baltic to Central Asia. Russia also wants the West to rule out Nato membership for Ukraine and pledge not to deploy forces in Eastern Europe without the Kremlin’s permission.
The West has practically rejected these demands, saying Russia cannot dictate and that free countries must be able to make their choices. The West says Russia is not a member of Nato and doesn’t decide on matters related to the military alliance. Ukraine also says only it and Nato could determine the relationship between them.
Experts say Russia has made these demands to provide a diplomatic distraction in maintaining military pressure in Ukraine. The talk of reviving Russia’s Soviet glory in changed geopolitical realities could just be a smokescreen.
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