Vladimir and Volodymyr | The Press

The most terrible conflicts sometimes oppose people who are too similar. History has shown that individuals who belong to the same ideological family or to the same political party, that countries which share the same history and the same culture are capable of great violence towards their fellow human beings. Freud spoke of the “narcissism of small differences” to explain how neighboring nations and in all respects comparable – France and Germany – had been able to fight such a bloody battle during the Great War. By dint of insisting on their differences, these nations had lost sight of all that they had in common.

This is precisely what is happening in the war between Russia and Ukraine. This tragic story recalls the fratricidal struggles as told in the old myths: Cain killing Abel, Romulus killing Remus, Polynices killing Eteocles. As in the myths, it is the elder brother – Great Russia – who attacks his younger brother – “Little Russia”, as Ukraine has long been called. The two countries may share the same origins, practice the same religion, speak sister languages; they may experience the same economic problems and the same corruption scandals (let’s not forget that the name of the young Ukrainian president recently appeared in the Pandora Papers, as did that of several Russian oligarchs close to Putin¹), nothing works. Russia is attacking Ukraine as a completely foreign country, a “nazified” country, according to the outrageous accusation launched by the Kremlin, a sad way of veiling its face and denying reality. Because in truth, the soldiers who bombard the Ukrainian cities do not attack enemies, but brothers and sisters born of the same mother.

Ukraine embodies in the eyes of Russia a path that it could have followed and from which it turned away, a Russia that was possible but never happened.

If Ukraine represents a threat to Russian power, it is because it has demonstrated for 30 years that democracy can flourish in this region of the world.

The United States, Great Britain or France offer political models that are too distant, too exotic to be really credible in the eyes of the Russians: Ukraine, on the contrary, is almost like Russia, which explains why its existence provokes such a violent reaction among defenders of Russian authoritarianism.

Moreover, by one of those coincidences of which History has the secret, the two presidents who go to war share the same first name, Vladimir and Volodymyr, as if they were sort of twins who had been separated at the birth and who suddenly found themselves face to face on the battlefield. In the eyes of Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky embodies another version of himself, his hated double, the one he definitively discarded when he decided to restore Russia to its former glory, to restore his empire, whatever either the price. While Zelensky is the product of popular protests and a culture of opposition, born of the Orange Revolution and Maidan, Putin has worked for two decades to eliminate his opponents one by one until today country the kingdom of the single thought, as in the time of Stalin.

But what one can imagine makes Zelensky even more detestable in Putin’s eyes are the circumstances that brought him to power. While Putin, a studious and patient student, climbed the ladder one by one, methodically advancing his pawns within the state apparatus until reaching the top, Zelensky arrived at the head of his country by some sort of miracle. He who had neither party nor program, who knew nothing about the workings of power, who had never even exercised the slightest elected office, was elected against all odds. Zelensky is a comedian, who rose to fame in a popular television series, servant of the peoplewhere he played the role of an ordinary man who overnight became President of Ukraine (!)… which, as we know, corresponds very exactly to what happened in the years since monitoring.

Zelensky thus played the president before really becoming one, as if fiction preceded reality, or rather: as if reality was contained in fiction, was engendered by it. Such a spectacular rise has something of Hollywood about it, a flavor of the American dream, something unbearable for a leader like Putin, who has given himself all the power over the careers and fortunes of his subjects. This rise is reminiscent of that of an owner of start-up who suddenly sees the action of his company fly away and becomes a billionaire. No wonder Elon Musk recognized himself in Zelensky’s story and vowed to support him using his satellites when he learned that Russia was seeking to cut Ukraine off from the rest of the world².

The Ukrainians may be the brothers of the Russians, do not think that Putin will show empathy towards them. It suffices to be convinced of this to see how he treated and still treats his own people. I am thinking of these two hostage-takings, one in a theater in Moscow in 2002 and the other in a primary school in Beslan in 2004, where hundreds of Russians found themselves prisoners of Chechen commandos. Putin did not hesitate for a moment to sacrifice his people in the name of the fight against terrorism. Result: 128 dead in Moscow, 334 dead in Beslan, including 186 children, all Russians. If he was able to be so insensitive to the life of the Russians, how can we think that he will be more lenient towards the Ukrainians, whom he immediately considers as enemies in the pay of Nazism?