Putin’s War Deciding Fate of Russia Even More than It is the Fate of Ukraine, Shimov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 26 – Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine in order to wipe that country from the map of the world, but his actions there and the response of both Ukrainians and the Wet means that this war is deciding his fate and that of Russia even more than it is that of Ukraine, Yaroslav Shimov says.

            That is because even the most positive possible outcome with any likelihood of taking place, Putin’s departure and replacement by a new regime, will still leave Ukraine in place, almost certainly cement it as a member of the West, and isolate Russia from the West for years to come, the Radio Liberty commentator says (svoboda.org/a/voyna-putina-i-mir-bez-putina-yaroslav-shimov-o-kontse-koshmara/31865937.html).

            “The economic sanctions introduced against Russia are hardly going to force the Kremlin to change course,” Shimov continues, “but sanctions are an instrument of pressure and a sign of distrust against those whom they are introduced. Their removal is possible only if there is a restoration of such trust” – and that won’t happen anytime soon.

            And in this case, they are changing the West which is moving far more rapidly toward an economy not dependent on oil and gas and thus less concerned about a country like Russia that has nothing else on offer that anyone wants to buy. Consequently, the longer sanctions stay in place, the more isolated Russia and the West will be from one another.

            Quite quickly, there will thus be another Europe and another Russia, “much more isolated from one another” and for a long time to come. Europe will rearm and Ukraine will be part of it; and in the wake of all this, Russia will find itself before a fateful choice “between Putin’s war and a world without Putin.”