Russians May Not ‘Want War’ in the Abstract But They View It as an Entirely Legitimate Way to Achieve Their Goals, Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 18 – Russians may not “want war” in any abstract sense, but they are more than ready to engage in it if their leaders call for war because they view such action as an entirely legitimate way to achieve their goals, Vladimir Pastukhov says. And that means they are predisposed to war just as some people are more at risk of catching this or that disease.

            Putin and his team in the Kremlin understand this far better than do anti-war Russian intellectuals, the London-based Russian analyst says.  Indeed, “the Russian intelligentsia is much more isolated from the realities of Russian society than the vaunted Russian ‘political leadership’” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=62EE885500D96).

            Putin recognizes as the intelligentsia does not that the Russian people are predisposed to war and that all they need is someone to trigger than impulse. In the current context, he is the trigger; but the underlying cause is the attitude Russians as a nation have long had about how they can and should deal with others.