As Result of War in Ukraine, West has Achieved Its Main Goal Regarding Russia, Kalashnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 2 – Whatever Ukraine may have to give up as a result of Russia’s invasion, the West has already achieved its “main goal” with regard to Russia by blocking Moscow from restoring the empire, Maksim Kalashnikov says. Indeed, in many respects, Russia has “already lost” this fundamental geopolitical game.

            “The long and bloody slaughter” in Ukraine has meant that the West’s “greatest fear, the recreation of a Russian empire” won’t happen, the Russian futurologist and security analyst argues because this “sea of blood” has divided Russians and Ukrainians for a long time to come (t.me/roy_tv_mk/17698 reposted at izborsk-club.ru/27614).

            The war has led “to the ‘Banderization’ of even the most Russian regions of the former Ukrainian SSR, something Bandera never dreamed of [and] has ignited mutual hatred” given that the areas Russian forces have occupied have “turned into a zone of ruins, devastation, criminalization and humanitarian catastrophes.”

            “From the West’s perspective,” Kalashnikov argues, “at a time when globalization is collapsing and the world is splitting up into new imperial blocs, Russia has thus lost the chance to create its own imperial federation. Economically, it is exhausted and has failed to industrialize, enormous resources for development having been squandered in a positional war.

            Indeed, he says, “this loss of resources for development is comparable to the devastation of Rus’ after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.” And “that is why the Western enemy believes it has dealt us a terrible strategic blow,” one that leave Russia with no options except to become a junior partner of the West in the struggle with China and allow the West to develop Russia economically for its own purposes.

            What must be remembered in all this, Kalashnikov says, is that the West “doesn’t care about Ukraine.” It is concerned only with countering the potential revival of a new Russian empire. Given that, “Russians have only one path for survival,” one that involves a new wave of industrialization and the formation of an alliance with Iran and India.