Even if Moscow Defeats Kyiv, Russia May Find Itself in a Slavic Version of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict for a Long Time to Come, Popov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 17 – Eventually, the West will tire of supporting Ukraine; and Kyiv’s forces will lose to Russia’s, Dmitry Popov says, with the Russian military reaching deep into Ukraine and annexing parts of that country to Russia. But that won’t be the end of the conflict; and Russians need to get ready for what is ahead.

            According to Dmitry Popov, the longtime political observer of Moskovsky komsomolets, even if the Ukrainian state were to capitulate, “radical groups and politicians will remain in Ukraine” and the fight between them and Russia will be “a Slavic version of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict” (mk.ru/politics/2023/05/17/svo-budet-dlitsya-godami-rossiya-mozhet-stat-slavyanskim-izrailem.html).

            The situation in the cores of the two countries may be relatively peaceful, the commentator says; but life in the border regions will remain tense and even violent. What is happening now in southern Russia may very well be a harbinger of what will be true even after a Russian victory.

            As Popov puts it, “elements of this can already be observed” in Russia. They may very well continue, and Russians will have to get used to the kind of situation Israelis have been living with for decades. That will reduce the meaning of any Russian victory that the Kremlin may proclaim and that others may recognize.

            “Perhaps,” he says, “you need to get used to this possibility,” one very much at odds to what Russian leaders have suggested and that many in both Russia and elsewhere assume.