Russia is suffering from massive economic sanctions. We can rejoice in their hardship, but have we not made the situation worse?
The vast majority of Russians have never traveled beyond Russia. They receive their information from state television, and from Kremlin-controlled websites. These media are now telling them that the world has turned against Russia. The “evil West” is responsible for inflicting hardship on ordinary (innocent) Russians.
The idea underpinning the West’s strategy of instituting massive economic sanctions seems to have been based on two false premises: that Putin cares about the wellbeing of his people (he doesn’t) and that the Russian people (or the oligarchs around him) will rise up against Putin if their wellbeing suffers significantly.
The vast majority of Russians have never traveled beyond Russia. They receive their information from state television, and from Kremlin-controlled websites.
The opposite may well be happening. In Russian popular discourse Putin embodies Russia. There can be no Russia without Putin (his press secretary even said so several years ago). By sanctioning the Russian economy, the West has attacked Putin-Russia. And the natural reaction is patriotic consolidation.
In other words, instead of weakening Putin, sanctions may well have increased his popular support. Russians are reacting like sports fans who have witnessed what they perceive as an “unfair” ruling by a referee against their team: cheering for their coach (Putin) has grown louder.
Eventually (we hope) the coach will be replaced. But that won’t happen because of the ref’s ruling, but rather because their team loses. That is why Putin cannot ford to lose in Ukraine, and will escalate until he can get a “win”.
I apologize for the sports analogy, but given how the war in Ukraine is being portrayed in the global media, this seems fitting. The West has its favorite team — the underdogs with Zelensky as the star captain.
Russians root for their own, ignoring both their team’s errors and any costs associated with supporting the home side.
Meanwhile, this is not a game. Nuclear power plants are being shelled. Civilian infrastructure is being destroyed. People are dying in very large numbers.
Sanctions are not sufficient answer.
* Thoughts from Kyiv is a series of flash essays by Mychailo Wynnyckyj from February 2022
Author: Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Social Scientist, Public Intellectual. Academic Development Officer, Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Illustration: Olga Protasova, plasticine panel fragment
Content Editor: Maryna Korchaka
Programme Directors: Julia Ovcharenko and Demyan Om Dyakiv Slavitski
If you think of yourself as a poet or a poetess and you are considering taking this path seriously, most likely sooner or later you will ask yourself this question: what can I do for poetry?
Few weeks ago (mid January it was)* I took part in a writer’s conference with other international writers in Kolkata, India. It was a panel discussion addressing the topic of “Writing for the post-pandemic world”.
The morning begins with a final farewell to a soldier in our yard. He died in the war. A message about this appeared in the neighbor chat yesterday, indicating the building number and the entrance. High-rise buildings, just like low-rise ones, can’t avoid loss in wartime. There are more than 800 apartments in our building. Is there at least one unaffected by the war?
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