Conflict between Ukraine and Russia continued to escalate Tuesday. Although both sides have stated they don’t want war, neither has shown any sign of acquiescing.
Statements released by a Ukrainian parliamentarian have also shown little hope of a peaceful solution or even negotiation. In fact, Petro Poroshenko, the aforementioned parliamentarian, has even indicated that there’s little negotiation going on at all.
At the same time, there’s plenty of military presence. Yuriy Sergeyev, Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, has reported that Russian planes, boats and helicopters came pouring into the Crimean peninsula with 16,000 troops. Furthermore, armed but unidentifiable forces have closed in around Ukrainian military installations. These disguised troops are likely Russian special ops, sent for their intimidation factor.
To make matters worse, after officials confirmed that Russian forces have secured complete operational control of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that any American criticism of his military incursion would be hypocritical. Ouch, but at least he didn’t make any weapons of mass destruction jokes.
Putin’s zinger, which Russian nationals are probably gobbling up, is exactly what this entire incident boils down to: nationalism.
Putin, who is known for incorporating rhetoric from Russia’s most notable philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries, is stoking the nationalism fire. He wants to flex the motherland’s muscles on the grandest of stages, for no other reason than to assert Russian exceptionalism. Well, he wants to secure Russia’s access to the port in Crimea, too.
Furthermore, Putin wants a Russia that is spiritually and culturally unique in both purpose and content, which explains the growing disdain for Western culture. Want to know why Russia has instated such inhumane laws towards homosexuals and women? Solely to be different than what Western culture dictates.
Putin, like the Russian philosophers he quotes so often, wants to develop a Russia without any of the maligned materialistic or nihilistic values of the West. Or so the narrative goes. At long last, Putin wants Russia to realize the potential it’s failed to realize for centuries. He certainly thinks removing any trace of Western ideology is a good way of going about this.
Does this sound like a country or man that can be reasoned with economically or diplomatically? No.
In Russia, war solves Western diplomacy. In Russia, centuries of philosophical zealotry is reaching a fever pitch. Putin wants the best of a Soviet revival combined with the tenets of their orthodox religion, which is makes for a nasty concoction.
This is why our policymakers should treat Russia unlike any beast they have tried to tame before. Stifling trade with the country, implementing economic sanctions or removing their membership in diplomatic groups is absolutely irrelevant to Russia’s ultimate goals. If that’s not disconcerting, our diplomatic track record for the last decade or so certainly is.
Ultimately, Putin doesn’t sound that much different than the kind of steadfast men that played power politics, claimed to work for the greater good and pulled from tenets of ethical egoism in order to bring our country to prominence. I wouldn’t want to see the U.S. get into a mirror match.