President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman informed Russians this week that the “special military operation” that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022 was set to go on much longer because it is now “a war against the collective West.”
That’s right: a war.
It was remarkable to hear that word from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Journalists were explicitly banned from using it as the invasion began and thousands of Russians have been detained, fined and imprisoned for telling the truth about a war which has now been raging for almost two years.
“Moscow deputy Aleksey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying ‘war,’” Sergey Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support group, told The Daily Beast. He said over 20,000 Russians have now been detained and punished for protesting against the war. “That includes 131 Russians who have been sentenced to long prison terms in punishment for peaceful or for more radical anti-war actions,” he said. “I don’t think punishments against the war will now be milder after the Kremlin openly says ‘war.’ Putin will be next to declare it.”
Risky take, but I’m glad the US hasn’t done that. We have a terrible track record. It never seems to help, and this isn’t ultimately a Putin problem so much as a larger tendency of this regime and its economic systems.
I just don’t know if there’s a version of Russia that can coexist with the status quo we’ve been trying to protect. It might be terminal, and god help us if I’m right.
I guess it is inevitable that Russia will ultimately have to be destroyed by external force. Whether it happens sooner or later. One day the full West will be at war with them. Here’s me hoping it will be a couple of lifetimes away. I have young children. 😓