Putin’s Goal in Ukraine is to ‘Normalize’ War for Russians, Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – Vladimir Putin has a goal in his war in Ukraine but it has little to do with Ukraine as such, Vladimir Pastukhov says. Instead, it is intended to “normalize” war for Russians, to transform them into people who believe that “war is a normal, healthy, and useful condition for their country.”

            Because this is the goal, the London-based Russian analyst says, the war in Ukraine cannot end in a “civilizationally normal way.” Instead, it must end with this broader purpose being addressed, something that can occur only if the West understands that “the purpose of this war is war itself” (svoboda.org/a/vladimir-pastuhov-tsel-etoy-voyny-voyna/31926250.html).

            According to Pastukhov, those in the Kremlin who are rational and don’t accept the madness of Malofeyev or Dugin, see the pursuit of this normalization of war as being in their best interests, however much it may appear to others to contradict these. If they succeed in getting Russians to accept war as normal, they will survive politically for the rest of their days.

            And that means that Putin and those around him are not seeking a victory in the conventional sense, one that his opponents might find a way to negotiate about, but the transformation of Russia into a continuing source of wars of various kinds for as long as he and his people are in the Kremlin.