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The dramatic warlike conflict that is taking place at this moment in Ukraine threatens to be the most transformative and dangerous event in Europe since World War II.
In recent days, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinhas intensified the attack on key Ukrainian cities, such as Kherson, Kharkiv and the capital, Kiev.
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And he has shown no sign that this is going to stop, despite the harsh sanctions imposed on his country by the West.
Many analysts are wondering these days what is really going through the head of the Russian president.
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One of the most familiar answers in the West, especially in the United States, is that Russia is and has always been an expansionist state and that Putin is the embodiment of that ambition: to build a new Russian empire.
And this is where the concept appears “Russky Mir” or “Russian World”.
What did you say Fiona Hill — one of America’s leading Russia experts — in an interview with Politico, Putin has been articulating the idea that there is a space where Ukrainians and Russians are the “same people”and that its mission is to bring together all the Russian-speakers from different places that once belonged to tsarism.
But how exactly is the Ruskkiy Mir defined, what signs has Putin given that he wants to unify it, and how can the invasion of Ukraine be the key to achieving this goal? Here we explain it to you.
What is the “Russky Mir”?
Although there is no clear academic definition of what Ruskkiy Mir specifically means, different analysts have tried to explain it.
For some, it is the world that comprises the entire community associated with Russian culture, which shares a history, a language and certain traditions. For the same reason, it is difficult to define a border.
For others, there is a basic territorial set that could be the core of this world and that could include Russia itself, in addition to Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, among others.
“There are two criteria to define the Russkiy Mir. The first is cultural, which encompasses all of Russian culture as a whole, including those outside the territory,” he explains to BBC Mundo Juan Manuel de Faramiñán Gilbertprofessor emeritus at the University of Jaen.
“The second concept is geographical and is based on what was the old tsarist empire created by Catherine the Great. It could extend to the southern area attached to the Black Sea or even to Georgia,” he adds.
But for Sergey Goryashkojournalist of the Russian service of the BBC, the definition of the Russian world in Putin’s head has no borders.
“A couple of years ago, some schoolchildren asked Putin where the Russian border ends. And he replied that they don’t end anywhere“, remember for BBC Mundo.
“And that could be the definition of what the Russian World really means to Putin. Because if we look at his actions since 2014 (when Crimea was annexed), they prove exactly that the Russian world does not end anywhere. The Russian world is the world. whole,” he adds.
Another important element to consider when defining the Russkiy Mir is the role of the Russian Orthodox Church, with millions of followers around the world.
Within this religion, the idea of a spiritual and cultural unity of the Russian community as a whole, which is enshrined through this concept.
Thus, the church is a great ally of the ideology behind the Russian world.
What signs has Putin given?
Vladimir Putin has always promoted the resurgence of Russia as a world power.
And he has strongly criticized some former Russian leaders who, in his opinion, condemned the Soviet Union to its disintegration (which finally materialized in 1991).
“Putin has made it very clear that (Vladimir Illich) Lenin destroyed the Russian world and that it did not configure a true Russia. In that sense, he admires the czars more, like Catalina la Grande or Iván el Terrible”, says Juan Manuel de Faramiñán Gilbert.
“Then he said that Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin are the authors of the dismemberment of the true heart of Russia”, adds the academic.
For Putin, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the borders were “defined in an absolutely arbitrary and not always justified way.”
This was stated in an act of his political movement in 2016.
“Donbass, for example, was transferred to Ukraine under the pretext of increasing the percentage of the proletariat in Ukraine in order to gain stronger social support there. Nonsense,” Putin said.
On July 12, 2021, in a lengthy article on relations with Ukraine published on the Kremlin website, Vladimir Putin gave further clues about his interest in reunifying the Russian world.
The president went back to the time of the old rus peopleconsidered as the common ancestor of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, and highlighted the many milestones of common history to argue his view that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”.
In addition, in recent years, the president has reinforced his rhetoric against the West, which for some experts is also part of this ambition to increase Russia’s power in the world.
“He says it more and more in his speeches, that everything bad is because of the Westfor his hostile actions against Russia,” explains Sergey Goryashko.
“After 2014, after what happened in Crimea, everything turned to the construction of the Russian World and also to the hostile rhetoric of the West,” he adds.
In 2007, meanwhile, Putin created a foundation called Russkiy Mir aimed at promoting the Russian language and culture in the world, as a global project.
Why is Ukraine important?
Ukraine is not just another country in the world for Vladimir Putin.
One of the most difficult moments of his long career as president occurred in 2004, when after the “orange revolution” he won the Ukrainian elections. Viktor Yushchenkoconsidered by the Kremlin as a “puppet” of Washington.
This was a huge humiliation for Putin as it was perceived as if he had lost Ukraine. Analysts assure that the president never forgot that defeat and did not forgive it either.
“The dominant view of Russian nationalism is that Ukraine is a sister Slavic nation and, moreover, that it is the heart of the nation of rus. It is a very powerful ideology that makes Ukraine a central element of Russian identity,” Gerald Toal, professor of International Relations at Virginia Tech University in the US, explained to BBC Mundo.
“Therefore, there are very powerful emotions when Ukraine as a nation defines itself in opposition to Russia. That causes a lot of anger and frustration in Russia, which feels betrayed by a brother.”he adds.
In this context, the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, takes on special relevance.
“Kiev has been from the beginning what was called the mother of russian cities. Kiev is more the capital of the whole of the Russian World than Moscow or Saint Petersburg”, says Juan Manuel de Faramiñán Gilbert.
The academic insists that “if Putin takes Ukraine, I am sure that he would move the capital to Kiev because for him the spiritual imaginary of Kiev It is much stronger than the one in Moscow.”
And it is that for the Russian Orthodox Church, Kiev is vital. So much so that even in 2019 the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill, compared the Ukrainian capital with the meaning of Jerusalem for Christianity global, according to the Russian outlet TASS.
Then what will happen?
According to Fiona Hill, the above does not mean that Putin wants to annex all the “Russkiy Mir” territories, as he did with Crimea.
But, as the Politico expert said, “it can establish dominance by marginalizing regional countries, ensuring that their leaders are completely dependent on Moscow,” tied to Russian economic, political and security networks.
In part, it has already been doing it.
Kazakhstan has been named as “Moscow’s number one ally” and this close relationship was demonstrated in January this year when Putin decided to send support troops to the local government to contain the violent protests that arose after the price of oil increased considerably in That country.
Belarus, meanwhile, is completely subjugated to Moscow. And since the Russian invasion of Ukraine it has played a key role, serving as a ground for Russian military deployment.
But for Sergey Goryashko of the BBC’s Russian service, nobody really knows what is going to happen.
“I’ll be honest. Just two weeks ago, I was 100% sure there was going to be no real war in Ukraine. And now I think Ukraine is not Putin’s main target. It’s just one more of his targets,” he concludes.
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Source: Elcomercio
