Putinism Now an Existential Threat to West Just as Barbarians were to Rome and Could Succeed as They Did Unless West Responds Adequately, Skobov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 30 – A major feature of Putin’s fascism is its desire “to throw off cultural and civilizational restrictions developed over centuries and plunge into savagery, Aleksandr Skobov says; and because that is so, Putin and his regime want to destroy the West and thus dethrone what they see as “’the false ideas’ of humanism and liberalism.”

            Many in the West dismiss this as impossible, the St. Petersburg critic of Putin and his regime says; but they shouldn’t. Putinist fascism could destroy the West just as the barbarians destroyed Rome, an outcome most Romans couldn’t imagine (severreal.org/a/rezhim-perenimaet-sovetskie-praktiki-aleksandr-skobov-o-putinskoy-rossii/32884398.html).

            “If the West behaves in a cowardly and short-sighted way as it has up to now,” the Soviet and now Russian dissident says, then Putin may very well win because Putin, “like a classic criminal” from the streets of Russia’s norther capitals, doesn’t believe words unless and until they are followed by actions.

            Consequently, Skobov continues, “if the West wants to survive as a civilization, it will have to show its readiness to oppose Putin’s Russia with all its strength.” Otherwise, the prospects for the future are anything but bright. Putin is constantly testing the West and goes forward if the West shows it doesn’t understand what is happening and doesn’t respond.

            In this situation, defeating Putin in Ukraine but allowing him and his cohort to remain in place is not enough. His regime and its ideology must be overthrown. “This is an absolutely necessary condition” for the survival of the West. The second condition, Skobov says, is “the complete reformatting of the structure” of the Russian empire.

            “Russia must be changed territorially,” he argues. “Its parts must become more independent,” although he says that he doesn’t know exactly what form this will take. Perhaps “disintegration into several dozen political entities,” perhaps “two or three large formations,” or “perhaps the bulk of the current subjects will maintain some unity among themselves.”

            According to Skobov, “it is impossible to predict anything here. “But the imperial essence of the Russian state must be broken and an end put to imperial identity, to the sense of belonging to a huge state that is stronger than everyone else.” That is “a must” for its peoples and for the world.

            “If the imperial subconsciousness persists, he concludes, “it will continue to reproduce aggressive authoritarian regimes.” No serious changes will occur, and there won’t be any “room for progress. “ To avoid that, the imperial identity that Putin has sought to revive and expand “must disappear.”