A Bit of Geopolitics

Consequently, all through XIX century Russian Rulers were grappling with “Jewish question,” resulting in Pales of Settlements, Pogroms, Revolutions, terrorism, mass emigration and so on. Those who stayed and were not killed by Germans, ended up fully integrated and assimilated.

Much more complicated proved another Polish gift –beware of Poles bearing gifts — Ukrainians. In fact, I would call Ukraine — Polish revenge on Russia. Throughout XX century Russian rulers, from Lenin to Stalin and all the way to Putin were trying to resolve the issue, trying everything from Russification to Ukrainization, to land gifts, to full admission into top echelons of leadership (Khrushchev, Brezhnev, most of the military, KGB and so on). Catherine the Great in fact, tried to bring them into her bed. Yet, the issue remained, in fact, it has now exploded into war.

Ukrainian leadership is pathologically incapable of resolving this issue without demonizing a big chunks of its complex population and history. They don’t know how, as they don’t have any experience of state building.

Putin has clearly inherited a time bomb left to him by generations of Russian leaders. Will he be subtle enough to resolve it before the full blown war with the west, is not clear.

So far, he is trying to protect both the interests of his country and the interests of those Russian speaking Ukrainians who want to remain part of Russian World and don’t want to speak the mixture of English and Polish while trying to find a job as the cleaning ladies for the western middle class.

What’s important is that he and the people around him know what exactly they are dealing with, rather than imagining that they are dealing with brothers, partners and so on. In that respect, Lukashenka, the leader of another Polish gift, Belarus, knows damn well, what he is dealing with. But Putin is either too proud or too myopic to learn from him. He’d rather learn from his western partners. A big mistake, if you ask me.