Putin resumes the old dream of a greater Russia

While Vladimir Putin has just proclaimed the annexation of new territories for the benefit of Russia, a return to the logic of its expansion is essential.

Putin cares little about legality. Like his predecessors in Russian history, strength is his main argument. This was already the case in 2014, when he annexed Crimea and presented the world with a fait accompli. But he used the same logic as Stalin, who took advantage of the German-Soviet pact of 1939 to expand, at the expense of the Baltic countries and Bessarabia. And he was even inspired by Lenin who annexed many republics to the USSR, such as Ukraine in 1922. But Lenin followed in the footsteps of the tsarist empire which, since the 18th century, has continued to expand towards the east and south mainly, taking territories from the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire and also seizing part of Poland, or Finland to the west and north.

In fact, Putin is taking up the old dream of a greater Russia, learned in his childhood. It refuses to take into account the new logics that have imposed themselves in international society, where force is not enough to establish law.

>> Vladimir Putin’s speech, “an explosion of nationalist delirium” according to Jean-Louis Bourlanges