Even Russian Liberals are Talking about War – and Other Russians are Paying Attention, Gorevoy Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 3 – When the flamboyant Vladimir Zhirinovsky says that a major war is coming, most Russians dismiss this as Zhirinovsky being Zhirinovsky, Ruslan Gorevoy says; but when opposition figures like Mikhail Kasyanov and Andrey Illarionov say the same thing, ever more Russians are taking such predictions seriously.

            These Russian liberals, the Versiya commentator says, cite evidence, of course, but it may be that they are being swept up by emotions about some kind of new “small victorious war” like the one involving the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula that produced “the Crimean consensus” (versia.ru/vsled-za-patriotami-o-skoroj-vojne-zagovorili-dazhe-otechestvennye-liberaly).

            Such a new war is possible, Gorevoy suggests; but it is also the case that war hysteria may play a role equivalent to that of a war itself. Even better, such hysteria will not entail the costs that any war does.  What is thus striking is that the liberal analysts are going along with this, wittingly or not, and spreading the hysteria which may or may not lead to war.