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

[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.