Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, a question keeps coming up in many Western countries: what is Putin thinking?
The closest approximation we have to an answer to this question is his speeches.
Putin’s speeches
Putin’s widely publicized speeches were used by Western media to try to guess what he would do next, they were one of the first indications that Putin was truly going to invade a sovereign nation.
Writing in The Guardian, journalist Peter Pomerantsev called Putin’s speeches “almost comedic villain stuff”, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take him seriously – even when what he says doesn’t matter. doesn’t make much sense, like when he called Ukrainian leaders “drug addicts, neo-Nazis.”
His latest speech has been translated into English below, where he continually talks about the West’s hope of inflicting “total devastation” on Russia and “so-called gender freedoms”.
Hints of fascism
Putin’s speeches have been branded fascist for years, as this Der Spiegel article can attest. Many have cited his recent use of the word Nazi as particularly troubling.
Speaking ahead of his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin said: “We will strive to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to justice those who have committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians.” .
While Ukraine certainly had its problems before the war, both Nazi-related and otherwise, there was no ongoing genocide in the country. The Ukrainian government is not a Nazi regime and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a Jewish descendant of soldiers who fought Hitler in World War II.
Putin’s Crude Wars
No leader of the Soviet Union, according to The Atlantic, has used such terms to describe the West as Putin does.
These terms include Zabaltyvat (bury in bullshit); vrut (they talk bullshit); naduli, prosto naglo obmanuli (they cheated [us], shamelessly deceived); protivno (disgusting); idite vy [na khuy, or fuck yourselves] with your concerns.
