Artykuł
At Some Point, Something Will Have to Be Done About Russia
From Russia’s perspective, Ukraine is a trophy in a macho game between the powers. People in Moscow believe that they have the right to subjugate the neighbouring countries, and that the West should recognise it
Aliaksei Kazharski Researcher at Charles University in Prague. PhD at Comenius University in Bratislava. Author of publications including: “Central Europe Thirty Years After the Fall of Communism: A Return to the Margin?”
Aliaksei Kazharski Researcher at Charles University in Prague. PhD at Comenius University in Bratislava. Author of publications including: “Central Europe Thirty Years After the Fall of Communism: A Return to the Margin?”
Aliaksei Kazharski in an interview with Emilia Świętochowska
Aren’t you under the impression that in the past year, history has rapidly accelerated?
I am, and this feeling has been intensifying since 2020. I come from Belarus, so for me, the war did not start in 2022, but two years earlier. At that time, protests broke out in Belarus and Lukashenko's authoritarian regime turned into a neo-totalitarian regime. All this is very closely linked to the war in Ukraine.
'The West is to blame for everything that is happening in Ukraine' ‒ the proponents of realism theory have been arguing this since the beginning of the war. According to their narrative, NATO's eastward expansion and the promise of Alliance membership to Ukraine and Georgia constituted an encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence. US and EU support for democratic movements in post-Soviet countries is nothing more than an attempt to draw them into the Western orbit. Russia, the realists argue, felt threatened in its own backyard, so it was obvious that it would want to clean house. Can we send this school of thought to the trash heap of history already?
