Russia is ‘a Capital City-Centric State’ but ‘Ukraine is More than Kyiv,’ Portnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 28 – One of the most common errors people make is to assume that others are like themselves, Vitaly Portnikov says. And thus because “Russia is a capital city-centric state,” Putin fails to understand that “Ukraine is more than Kyiv” and that attacking it will lead to the collapse of the country.

            Unfortunately for Putin and other Russian leaders, “the Kremlin still thinks” of other countries as it does of its own, assuming that their capitals are just as central to their existence as states as has been the case of Russia throughout its history, the Ukrainian analyst says (charter97.org/ru/news/2026/9/28/699968/).

            Given that point of view, Portnikov continues, Russian leaders right down to Putin have believed that “to destroy Kyiv is to destroy Ukraine” and that “to intimidate Kyiv is to intimidate Ukraine” even though Kyiv did not assemble Ukraine the way the Russian capitals assembled Russia.

            Putin assumes and has managed to convince many others who are also ignorant of the differences between Russia and Ukraine that this “capital-centric” vision is correct and that a Russian occupation of Kyiv will be not a partial but a total Russian victory over Ukraine as a whole.

            But Ukraine is more than Kyiv, Portnikov argues; and even if Russia should succeed with its attacks on Kyiv, other parts of Ukraine will on the basis of their history continue to resist, depriving the current Kremlin leader of the victory that he believes can be his if he takes the Ukrainian capital.