Putin, Ukraine, the hidden faces…

In his new book, Putin, Ukraine, hidden faces, to be published by Balland on March 24, the Russian historian and writer of Russian-Ukrainian origin Vladimir Fedorovski nou delivers the keys to understanding the news of this new war on the European continent, the personality of the Russian president and what Ukraine and Russia represent today.

According to the former diplomat, it is necessary to know how to analyze history, and to reason about the past consequences of a news that we thought was over. Like what, nothing is ever acquired.

“Westerns have refused to associate Russia with the free world.”

Vladimir Fedorovsky

at franceinfo

When the USSR collapsed, was it not time for Europeans to involve Russians in a common task by helping them to rebuild? Vladimir Fedorovsky believes that we have “marginalized Russia, we even humiliated it, and we are paying a high price for it today…” It is true that it would have been simpler for the European Union at the time “to go to Russia”, instead of letting it sink into a serious economic crisis which plunged part of the Russian population into extreme poverty during the Yeltsin era. “Russian public opinion remains convinced today that the West did not want to kill Communism, but Russia”, says our guest. It is true that Europe has too often had a short memory.

May 9 is a national holiday in Russia (Victory Day, or День Победы), it is celebrated and commemorated in memory of military and civilian fighters who put up heroic resistance to the German invader, engaged over thousands kilometers on the Russian front, from June 22, 1941 to the beginning of 1944. This war, called in Russia the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война), cost Russia 27 to 30 million dead, military and civilian. Not to mention the siege of Leningrad (current Saint Petersburg) of nearly 900 days, where the city was surrounded by the Wehrmacht.

This siege lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, with 1,800,000 Russian casualties. It is because 153 to 201 German divisions (a division is between 10,000 and 30,000 men) were blocked by the Russian front, that the Allied landings could take place in Sicily, Normandy and Provence. However, on May 9, 2015, during the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany, no European head of state or government had traveled to Moscow. No European tribute was paid to the Russian fighters. The affront has not been forgotten. By their absence, the Europeans intended to signify their condemnation of the annexation of Crimea and Russian involvement in the war in Donbass, Ukraine.

“In Gorbachev’s time, 80% of Russians were pro-Western; today it’s barely 10-15%.”

Vladimir Fedorovsky

at franceinfo

According to our guest, “Putin is strengthening NATO and for now, NATO is strengthening Putin”. The war in Ukraine, as odious as it is, makes Vladimir Fedorovski say: “We have entered the world of all dangers: bloc against bloc, with the prospect of an anti-Western alliance between Russia and China and possibly Iran.”

It is true that all the dangers are at our doorstep, and if we are often victims of an information war, this conflict also finds its source in the anxiety which prevailed in the circles of Russian power, in the face of the expansion of NATO, and this, to the borders of Russia. Shouldn’t we regret the lack of dialogue between Europe and Russia? Today, the situation facing Europe, including the sanctions against Russia, may mark a turning point in the history of the EU.

Faced with the human drama of this war, the refugees, the dead and the wounded, the children who, like all children, are marked by war, we have perhaps entered a new dimension of the European continent, as Vladimir Fedorovski said . For our guest, “the sanctions will be gigantic for Europe and will not have the desired effect for the Russians”.

Can we deduce that the sanctions of Europe and the United States against Russia will result for Europeans in a rise in prices, especially in food since the increase in fuels will impact the cost of transport ?

Could these sanctions also raise fears of a risk of shortage in certain sectors, and would they also be a reason for retaliation, on the Russian side by the Maskirovka (Маскировка)? This Russian military doctrine is a technique of disinformation of the enemy, Maskirovka also means camouflage, which is understood by obtaining the attention of the other on a given point, while one will operate an action on another point.

Thus certain sensitive Western sectors could be undermined by Russia by destabilizing our daily lives through Russian actions carried out, for example, on submarine cables. Because 90% of global communications go through the submarine cable and not by satellite.

However, the effect of the sanctions was not long in coming in the space world. The departure of Russian specialists from the Kourou base in French Guiana, which has two launch pads, one for the Ariane rocket and the other for the Soyuz rocket, will delay the launch of European satellites pending the arrival of Ariane 6, that is, not before 2023.

As for the ambient Russophobia, Vladimir Fedorovski points out that it is time to know how to make the difference between Vladimir Putin and the Russian people. May diplomacy bring about a prompt de-escalation of this conflict which concerns us all.