This week, Alexander Dugin, a self-styled thinker who has persistently provided Putin with the ideological language to again up his insurance policies, sat down for an extended interview with Glenn Greenwald, the previously leftist American journalist. Dugin affably defined why Russia invaded Ukraine: as a result of it wished and wanted to reclaim its former European holdings however realistically may try and occupy solely Ukraine. He additionally laid out potential pathways to ending the warfare. On the very least, he stated, Russia would require a partition, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. He was purposefully utilizing the language the Allies utilized to Germany in Yalta.
On X, the place Dugin has been hyperactive within the final weeks, he’s even bolder. Within the lead-up to elections final week in Germany, he posted, “Vote AfD or we are going to occupy Germany as soon as extra and divide it between Russia and USA.” (A German journalist buddy despatched me a screenshot asking if the publish was actual — German journalists are much less accustomed to the unimaginable than Russian ones.)
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine understands the enormity of the menace, not solely to his nation however to Europe, for which Ukraine has served as a lethal buffer zone. However on Friday, when he tried to speak about this menace throughout an Oval Workplace assembly, Trump and Vice President JD Vance grew to become livid. They yelled at him, demanding that he acknowledge his powerlessness and grovel in gratitude. The talks collapsed.
What occurs to Ukraine now? Earlier than Zelensky’s go to to Washington, the best-case situation was for Russia to comply with a cease-fire in change for the roughly 20 p.c of Ukrainian territory that it at present occupies. That would depart thousands and thousands of Ukrainian residents — those that reside within the occupied territories and people who have been displaced east — beneath the rule of Russian totalitarianism. Now that end result, which was by no means prone to start with, seems all however unimaginable. We are actually within the realm of the worst-case situation, by which it’s doable to think about Putin launching a renewed offensive in opposition to Ukraine, geared toward complete domination, this time with the lively help of america.
Putin doesn’t simply desire a return to the twentieth century. He already resides there, and that’s the place anybody on the lookout for what may occur subsequent ought to flip. Particularly to 1938, when the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who fancied himself an excellent negotiator and an skilled in all issues, brokered an settlement that gave Hitler Sudetenland, an space of Czechoslovakia. In change, the remainder of Europe would, ostensibly, be protected from German aggression. A 12 months after the ensuing Munich Settlement was signed, after all, Germany invaded Poland and World Conflict II formally started.
