The Real War in Ukraine: The Battle over Ukrainian Identity
"At its core, therefore, this conflict is about whether Ukraine should be a monocultural or pluricultural nation, and peace is unlikely until Ukrainian politics are brought into conformity with the country’s cultural reality."
The second consequence is what I call the Great Shift Eastward, by which I mean Russia’s embrace of her heretofore underutilized Asian patrimony. There is a long list of geostrategists who have warned Western leaders to do everything possible to prevent this by binding Russian interest to Europe. No doubt many of them recall Mikhail Lomonosov’s famous dictum that “The Arctic Ocean and Siberia are destined to magnify Russia’s power.” [российское могущество прирастать будет Сибирью и Северным океаном. . . ]
On its present course, I fear that the West’s enduring legacy in the twenty-first century may be to fulfill this destiny.
Nicolai N. Petro is professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island. He has just finished a year in Odessa as a U.S. Fulbright research scholar in Ukraine. His views do not reflect those of the U.S. Department of State or the Fulbright Program.
[1] Between 1948 and 1951, the U.S. provided about $13 billion in cash goods and services—about $90 billion in today’s dollars—to Europe.
Image: Flickr/gvlaynemedia/CC by 2.0
Correction: This article originally attributed a quote to Mendeleyev. It has been corrected as a Lomonosov quote.