This week, Alexander Dugin, a self-styled thinker who has constantly provided Putin with the ideological language to again up his insurance policies, sat down for an extended interview with Glenn Greenwald, the previously leftist American journalist. Dugin affably defined why Russia invaded Ukraine: as a result of it needed and wanted to reclaim its former European holdings however realistically may try to occupy solely Ukraine. He additionally laid out potential pathways to ending the battle. On the very least, he mentioned, Russia would require a partition, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. He was purposefully utilizing the language the Allies utilized to Germany in Yalta.
On X, the place Dugin has been hyperactive within the final weeks, he’s even bolder. Within the lead-up to elections final week in Germany, he posted, “Vote AfD or we’ll occupy Germany as soon as extra and divide it between Russia and USA.” (A German journalist buddy despatched me a screenshot asking if the submit was actual — German journalists are much less accustomed to the unimaginable than Russian ones.)
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine understands the enormity of the risk, not solely to his nation however to Europe, for which Ukraine has served as a lethal buffer zone. However on Friday, when he tried to speak about this risk throughout an Oval Workplace assembly, Trump and Vice President JD Vance grew to become livid. They yelled at him, demanding that he acknowledge his powerlessness and grovel in gratitude. The talks collapsed.
What occurs to Ukraine now? Earlier than Zelensky’s go to to Washington, the best-case state of affairs was for Russia to comply with a cease-fire in alternate for the roughly 20 p.c of Ukrainian territory that it at the moment occupies. That would go away tens of millions of Ukrainian residents — those that stay within the occupied territories and those that have been displaced east — beneath the rule of Russian totalitarianism. Now that final result, which was by no means more likely to start with, seems all however inconceivable. We are actually within the realm of the worst-case state of affairs, during which it’s doable to think about Putin launching a renewed offensive in opposition to Ukraine, aimed toward whole domination, this time with the energetic help of the USA.
Putin doesn’t simply desire a return to the twentieth century. He already resides there, and that’s the place anybody in search of what may occur subsequent ought to flip. Particularly to 1938, when the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who fancied himself a superb negotiator and an professional in all issues, brokered an settlement that gave Hitler Sudetenland, an space of Czechoslovakia. In alternate, the remainder of Europe would, ostensibly, be protected from German aggression. A yr after the ensuing Munich Settlement was signed, after all, Germany invaded Poland and World Struggle II formally started.
