Putin Lives in an Echo Chamber that Compounds his Delusions. Putin is not “crazy.” Rather, Vladimir Putin is an ideologue who is executing plans to implement his visions of a radical ideology called “the Russian World.”
Putin spends his days, with his small circle of advisers, in the Kremlin echo chamber. The TV only shows Kremlin propaganda. Social media is not used by Putin’s circle; though since Putin has now blocked Facebook, Twitter, etc., –it does not really matter. The Orthodox Church strongly supports Putin and his visions of the so-called “Russian World.” There are no mainstream opposition political parties and, in just one day, over 5,000 Russians were arrested for protesting the war against Ukraine. As they do not hear dissent, Putin and team have no reason to believe that they are operating rationally. In fact, they only reaffirm each others’ beliefs that they are doing the right thing.
It could be argued that Putin and his team are delusional about the “facts on the ground” and the sentiment of the global public: There is significant evidence that the Kremlin used polling, edited by their own intelligence service, to assure themselves that the invasion of Ukraine would be hugely successful and supported by the Ukrainian people. This lends credence to the idea that intelligence reports that Putin reads are cherry-picked to conform to what Putin would like to see: That the “Russian World” was at hand, not the reality.
Putin’s Kremlin fervently believes in the righteousness of their “Russian World” cause in Ukraine and for their dreams of subsequent wars to upset the current world order. Just as Hitler, Pol Pot, and Stalin destroyed millions of lives in their quest to realize their “causes” to “save their peoples” – Putin and his circle are ideological radicals who plan to set the world afire to advance the Russian World. “The Russian World” is something of which very few Westerners have ever even heard, but soon they will hear much more.
“The Russian World”
Alexander Dugin, one of the leading proponents of “The Russian World,” is a current Russian philosopher and fascist. Putin praises Dugin and the President’s actions well-align with the philosopher’s proposals for Russia’s domination of Eurasia. To illustrate: Since the 1990s, Dugin has proposed the need to invade Crimea and eastern Ukraine since, as he said, “Ukraine, as an independent state with some territorial ambitions, poses a huge danger to the whole of Eurasia, and without solving the Ukrainian problem, it makes no sense to talk about continental geopolitics.” Importantly, this step, per Dugin’s thinking, is about control of lands to which Russia has a right and a self-preservation need. Per the Ukrainians themselves, as Dugin tactfully suggested during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine “Kill them, kill them, kill them. There should not be any more conversations.”
There are many facets of “the Russian World,” but a few are especially worth highlighting:
Ethnic chauvinism: The inherent superiority of “Russianness” – but NOT necessarily the Russian race. As Putin said on March 3, 2022, “I will never reject my belief that Ukrainians and Russians – are one people.” Putin has cited the hundreds of ethnic minorities that live in Russia – who are called on to love “Russianness” – as the Codex of the Modern Russian Officer states, “The Russian officer may not be Russian by ethnic origin, but he is to live his life in service to our Fatherland – Russia.”
Mystical beliefs about Russia: There are strong ideological ties to the occult, conspiracy theories about global capital, and an obsession regarding the “New World Order. The Officer’s Codex says that “Russia and the Russian Army are the last bastion ‘detaining’ the attacks of the Satanic ‘New World Order.’” The Russian Orthodox Church (especially during its recent conflict with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding it being granted autocephalous status, that is, the primacy of the Moscow Church over the Kyiv Church) has strongly backed Putin, and Patriarch Kirill has gone so far as to refer to Putin as a “miracle of God.” This adds elements of “righteous indignation and holiness” to the “crusade” which Russia is now waging against the world order.
Eurasianism: The “Russian World” argues that Russia should dominate Eurasia (essentially the Warsaw Pact countries; with more of Asia and Europe). In their view, opposing this polar shift in world power is “…an absolute enemy. It is the United States of America. It is the beginning and the end of our hatred.”
Eurasianists would see Russia’s national security as contingent on maintaining the lands of the former Tsarist and Soviet empires. A means of achieving this are the “frozen conflicts” (Transnistria) and “buffer zones” (i.e., Ukraine), though in both cases, the long-term goal is their wholescale incorporation by Russia. The ethnic “enclaves” and exclaves” must be maintained as it allows Moscow to keep its leverage over its neighboring former republics.
“Stab-in-the-back-Myth”: Like the Nazis, or the “Lost Cause of the Confederacy,” the Russian World proponents have a particularly zeal in their hatred for “past crimes against Russia” – especially that it was “robbed” by the Soviet Union. Putin’s palpable hatred of Lenin for “giving away” Russian land is compounded by his hatred for the USSR’s collapse which he called “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.” This led to “35 millions of Russian speakers” who were left outside of the borders of their “natural country.”
There is an audible hatred in Putin’s voice when he speaks of the Ukrainians, who he feels have “betrayed Russia.” Putin holds that those who oppose Russia’s will are essentially conspiring with the West (i.e., “Nazis”) so that they can obliterate Russia and “Russianness.”
World War II: In the eyes of “the Russian World,” there is a near-messianic historical narrative of World War II: The Russian people, alone, spilt the blood of tens of millions of its own people to save the world from Nazism – an ideology of the Anglo-Saxons to destroy Russia and the Slavs. Due to this incredible anointing of “Russian lands” with so much blood, Russia will forever be the world’s protection against Nazism.
Russian Land was Purified with the Blood of Millions
Putin’s insistence that he is protecting Russian-speakers is a mixed lie. Putin certainly wants the lands where there are many Russians – like Hitler did with the Sudetenland – however he does not actually care much about how these citizens live under his occupation. For Putin, it is the survival of the Russian Federation – not its people – that matters most.
Nazis
Vladimir Putin is often wrongly cited as being an “only child.” In fact, Vladimir had two older brothers – Viktor and Albert – both who died before his birth, one during the Nazi Blockade of Leningrad and he was tossed into a mass grave. Vladimir’s father was seriously wounded by Nazi artillery. Vladimir’s grandmother was killed by the Nazis during the War. The soldier-sons of his dead grandmother (Vladimir’s uncles) were killed in battle by Nazis and are buried in unmarked, mass graves, in unknown locations, somewhere along the “eastern Front.” Ironically, (or, perversely – because of this) Vladimir’s only academic interest in school was German…
Following Soviet War deaths of up to 27 million (18 million of which were civilians), the Soviet authorities realized that the pain and “collective trauma” of this experience could be manipulated for years into the future. Thus, they devised a central narrative that has been memorized by the three post-War generations of Russians that can be summarized as:
Russia/USSR saved the world from Nazism: The single greatest thing that any nation has ever done in history. It was accomplished by the loss of millions of Russia’s selfless, heroic citizens. Russians are the vanguards against Nazism. Russia must fight any flame-ups of Nazism, by spilling their and our blood.
This “historical narrative” has three goals:
PAST: Justify the staggering death tolls from killing Nazis in WWII;
PRESENT: It is a “foundational myth” used to legitimatize the government – built on the blood of patriots who killed Nazis;
FUTURE: Prepare the population for a future war, against “Nazism,” that would be existential. Even if we die – Russia will continue.
The repetition of the word “Nazi” is not a coincidence. Putin today refers to Ukrainians (and Zelensky, who is Jewish) as “Nazis” as a “dog whistle” (i.e., code word) that has been conditioned in the population to elicit the reaction “Our grandfathers died fighting the Nazis. Our government is on the right side of history – as we are fighting Nazis, which gives glory to our grandfathers. If we do not defeat the Nazis – we will be destroyed – and so this war is existential, and worthy of high losses.”
So, now what?
Putin cannot give up. If Putin shows “weakness” – he runs the serious risk of being deposed in Moscow. Likewise, Putin cannot justify to his population a negotiated peace with a “fascist government” that intends to one-day “attack Russia,” as he has claimed for months.
Putin’s most likely game plan is to follow the Soviet model of Germany in World War II: Destroy, then occupy Ukraine to prevent any future Nazis from coming to power. Putin’s natural heavy handedness is evidenced in the Second Chechen War, Beslan School attack, Nord Ost hostage situation, the bombing of Aleppo, etc. Thus, Putin has no qualms to raze Ukraine if it will bring the rebelling “Little Russians” (the Tsarist-era name for Ukrainians) into subjugation. Putin, undoubtedly, counted on Ukrainian men as future conscripts for his next war – something that shows how delusional he is in believing that “all Russians” will be united. Likewise, the Kremlin views those who assist Ukraine as being “collaborators with Nazis” and that those who sanction Russia are doing something that is “tantamount to declaring war” on Russia.
Given the worldview and mind of Putin, it would seem that things will get much worse before they get better. There is no “off ramp” for Putin’s ideology to be put aside so he can renegotiate Russia’s role in the world. Now that he is under the West’s crippling sanctions, the only way forward is to, messianically in his eyes, face these attempts to beat Russia into submission and to show that it is Russia that decides the world order in the eastern hemisphere. If Putin has ever seriously planned for a greater conquest and unification of the “Russian lands,” now is the moment.
This is why the United States and NATO allies must awaken to the fact that Putin will not stop with Kyiv. This conflict is ultimately not about NATO, Ukraine, or the European Union. Rather, this is a “holy war” by Putin and his comrades to put into practice a radical ideology to change the world order. Even if Putin’s advance is slowed, or if peace comes for a period, it will be ephemeral. It is not just Putin’s war in Ukraine that must be stopped, but his entire ideology must be uprooted.
To achieve this, Western allies must act now in three streams of work: 1. Better supply Ukraine, including by closing the skies, so that Putin is stopped. 2. Invest in greater initiatives to get to the Russian public the truth of what is happening in Ukraine, and globally, due to Putin. We must make the Russian people turn against their own Government. 3. Actively assist the Russian opposition so that alternatives to Putin become better known – and achieve greater public support. The fact is that even if Putin were to disappear tomorrow, he has over 100 million citizens who believe in him. We must act now to preserve world peace, and the first step is by abetting Ukraine to win its war against Russian aggression.
