Following the invasion of Ukraine, several political analysts have speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin has plans to ‘rebuild’ the Soviet Union. However, one of his biographers has intuited that his aspirations go much further.
In an interview for the ‘BBC’ network, journalist Steven Lee Myers, who worked for several years as a correspondent for ‘The New York Times’ in Russia, narrated several aspects of the political leader and what he, from his experience, perceives of the aspirations of the president.
Lee interviewed Putin on several occasions, so he has been able to give extensive testimony of the details that few know about his life. In fact, he is considered one of the closest biographers to the president.
The journalist says that Putin “always wins”. An example of this is that, in his 22 years as president, he has had to face many adversities, such as the accession of Crimea in 2014, and he has always overcome them, imposing the image of a strong man.
Lee relates his present behavior to the events that marked the leader’s childhood and adolescence. His father fought in World War II, in an area of Leningrad, where millions of people died, for which Putin visualized Nazi Germany as the imminent enemy.
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“The Soviet Union, Stalin, no matter what you think of them, they defeated Nazi Germany. You have to give them credit for that,” Lee said in the interview.
According to the journalist, Putin grew up with the idea of serving his country and the cause against the Nazis, which is why he enlisted at a very young age in the KGB.
However, he rules out that his objective with the invasion of Ukraine is to recreate or ‘revive’ the Soviet Union. His real motivation, according to Lee, would be to restore the greatness of the old Russian empire, whose origin was linked to the Ukrainian territory.
“Many people mistakenly think that Putin is trying to recreate the Soviet Union. I don’t think that’s what motivates him,” he noted.
Hence, Putin has a special interest in Ukraine and is annoyed every time the Ukrainian government makes any decision that delegitimizes Russia’s power.
Given this, the journalist pointed out that the leader’s action “is not simply about Ukraine joining NATO. It’s more complicated than that. I think he sees Ukraine literally as part of the Russian state.”
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It is for this reason that Putin does not even recognize Ukraine as a sovereign country, as he has publicly stated on several occasions.
As Lee indicates, the president’s main purpose is to defend the sovereignty of the Russian State at any cost.
On the contrary, one of Putin’s disdain and his greatest fear, as perceived by the journalist, is the “mandate of the crowds”. In other words, democracy.
Finally, Lee did not dare to refer to the politician’s mental health, but he did explain that he agrees with Mikhail Zygar’s theory that Putin’s behavior could be influenced by his closeness to Yuri Kovalchuk.
“Kovalchuk is part of Putin’s inner circle, not only at the government level but personally. They both share this quasi-religious vision of Russia and the conflict with the West”, he highlighted.
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