Why did Russia invade Ukraine? They were desperate for change and didn't know WHAT ELSE to do.

[DetlefK]

I recommend the russian political commentator Vlad Vexler on this.



Russia has this cultural void inside them, they haven't figured out yet what kind of country they want to be after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When the Third Reich collapsed, Germany's transition to democracy wasn't that hard because there was more than a century of german literature on democracy and multiple historic events regarding Germany and democracy. Democracy wasn't something foreign forced onto the citizens of the Third Reich but it was something they already knew from their own history-books.





The Russians did not enjoy that luxury of historical continuity to guide them through chaos.

The dictatorship of the czarist monarchy was replaced with the dictatorship of the Communist Party. Unlike Europe, the Russians have no historical or cultural tradition with regards to democracy. When the Soviet Union collapsed, democracy was forced onto them. Sure, they enjoyed their new-found freedoms but this was off-set by the political and economic chaos that brought suffering and hardships onto them.

For the Russians, this foreign concept of democracy being forced onto them and the foreign economic disaster of oligarchic capitalism being forced onto them are intertwined.





The Russians are feeling overwhelmed by this weird new world they no longer understand. The political chaos that comes naturally from multiple political parties competing with each other in a democracy, the chaos of there suddenly being dozens of opinions on hundreds of topics in the news-media, the chaos of new, foreign ideas and concepts...

To the Russians, it still feels like to this very day that they aren't in control of their own country, their own destiny: Their country and destiny are controlled by foreign ideas, ideals, notions, concepts beyond their power.











Three days into the Ukraine-war, the russian mainstream-newspaper Ria Novosti accidently published a pre-written article celebrating Ukraine's capitulation. In the very first paragraph it said, that now that Ukraine has been brought back into the fold, the russian government will soon announce massive "socio-political reforms" that will transform Russia into a better country.

RUSSIA WANTS TO BECOME A DIFFERENT, A BETTER KIND OF COUNTRY.

WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY?

THEY DON'T KNOW.

Russia wants something to make them happy, to make sense of their lives, to give them purpose, to make them feel like their true selves again... But they don't know what this something is.

When Ukraine broke up with Russia, Russia thought that reconquering Ukraine was the one thing missing from their lives.

RUSSIA LITERALLY BELIEVES THAT CONQUERING UKRAINE WILL SOMEHOW MAGICALLY MAKE ALL OF THEIR NATIONAL PROBLEMS GO AWAY.









That's why Russia invaded Ukraine. Because they thought that this is the one thing that will make them happy again.

And when Russia inevitably loses the war next year, you can expect this grievance to live on forever:
How the West prevented Russia from becoming an utopia because the West is evil.

[Glorfindel]

1. From "The Man Who Was" by Rudyard Kipling

"Let it be clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful person till he tucks his shirt in. As an Oriental he is charming. It is only when he insists upon being treated as the most easterly of Western peoples, instead of the most westerly of Easterns, that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely difficult to handle."

Very wise, was Mr. Kipliing.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. I love much of Kipling, but he was a racist as this quote illustrates. . . . nt

[Tetrachloride]

3. I saw a live Moscow show by satellite recently.

The intriguing thing was a small white haired white bearded guy, over 75 who didn’t say a word, didn’t change expression or look anywhere but straight ahead and slightly down.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Russia did not invade Ukraine

Putin invaded Ukraine in the name of Russia. A quibble fronting a fact. Putin did not and does not have as much support as he imagines or, at least, the support is wobbly.

Putin motives (beyond egoisticly comparing himself with Peter the Great) have near the top or at the top demolishing the greatest counter-example to Putinism.

Putin's Russia was bumping along growing on vast volumes of pumped oil.

Ukraine was thriving on building industry and looking toward the future. That future outlook enabled them to trounce Russia in the propaganda war, for example, while Putin who should be an expert on propaganda pushed out tired old tropes that fell flat on their face.

I love Patron!

Not only did Ukraine bounce back from Crimea 2014, but it has been doing it by looking West and by struggling and achieving much better freedoms and democracy than Putin's Russia.

He could not allow a free counter-example to thrive against his oppressive Putinism.

The annexation of Crimea in 2014 coupled with plummeting oil prices in 2014-2015 cut Ukraine’s GDP by over 50% from its all-time high in just two years. Though Russia’s economy is about ten times larger than Ukraine’s in terms of GDP, Ukraine’s GDP grew 70.8% from 2015 to 2020 while Russia’s advanced only 8.8% in that same time frame. Both economies have progressed in near-perfect correlation since 1989.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/russia-vs.-ukraine%3A-an-economic-comparison

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Despite or in addition to my prev post, the OP makes good points about Russia's schizophrenia

It's split between Make Russia Great Again and "We really are a Western country, see".

Further, the OP makes good points about Russia new but now estranged acquaintance with democracy.

[brush]

6. Poor Russkies, never a history of democracy...

just Czar/landlord/serfs for centuries, and then dictator/apparatchik/peasant in the Soviet Union...too bad. They just don't get the concept of people voting in their leaders, and voting them out if they do a piss poor job.

They just want to be dominated by a strongman daddy figure either in royal robes or Stalinist military garb or poorly tailored Soviet-era suits. Which is why they couldn't adjust to Gorbechev in his stylish Euro cut suits and his modern, reformist ideas. He definitely had to go.

No wonder they feel empty now...and Ukraine was just sitting there...all bread-baskety with food worth billions and plumb for the taking.