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Putin has no ideology; he is, in fact, an intellectually unsophisticated person. His entire political worldview rests on two very simple narratives. 1/9

One is that the West is waging an eternal war against Russia. The other is that Ukraine is merely an instrument of the West in the current episode of the perennial anti-Russian war. 2/9

In my recent essay, I traced the origins of these ideas to Putin’s teenage years and his fascination with Soviet spy thrillers, showing how his KGB service and specific events later solidified that basic worldview: shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/putins-gen... 3/9

There have been various attempts to “intellectualise” Putin’s thinking by linking him to Ivan Ilyin, Alexander Dugin, and the like – but it is all utterly excessive: all of Putin’s statements about the West and the war ultimately boil down to those two simple ideas. 4/9

Such a blow, in their logic, would inevitably weaken the West and improve the prospects for further Russian retaliatory efforts. 6/9

Ukraine is therefore not the primary target of Russia’s geopolitical revisionism – the West is. The destruction of Ukraine is merely a means of striking at the West without confronting it directly. 7/9

Those in the West who believe peace can be secured by surrendering Ukraine to Russia fundamentally misunderstand the hierarchy in Putin’s thinking: the destruction of Ukraine is a tactical objective, not the strategic aim of his war. 8/9

As soon as the attack started, it occurred to me this is not over Ukraine, this is over the freedom of Western Europe.

If this is the case, it makes sense for Europe to step up and be an enemy to Russia it cannot handle. It can start by making the cost of winning in Ukraine prohibitive, even if Russia is willing to pay it.