RealClearWorld reprints a very interesting discussion of “the world as Russia sees it.” Some key points arise from the study of two maps of Russia and its neighbors. The first is a population density map of the world’s physically largest country.
Russia, however much it purports to be a “Eurasian” country, and despite holding extensive territory in Asia, is fundamentally and will always be a European country. Think of Moscow as the eastern extremity of Europe. Russia has far more in common with Europe than it does with its Asian neighbors, like Japan, China, and Mongolia. Europe’s geopolitics matter to Russia because the vast majority of Russia’s population lives in Europe.
The second map is topographic and makes clear there are no mountain or water barriers of any military consequence between the English Channel and Moscow, an area geographers call the Northern European Plain. European Russia has been invaded repeatedly across this plain, causing great suffering and death they do not forget.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin says things like, “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the [previous] century,” he is not bemoaning the fate of the global proletariat (much to Lenin’s dismay). He is lamenting Russia’s loss of its strategic depth – a loss Putin has spent his entire rule attempting to correct. No matter who is President of Russia, no matter what his or her ideology is, Russia has an imperative to expand to the Carpathians either politically, or with military force, to ensure the defensibility of its territory. It always has, and it always will.
Author Jacob Shapiro thinks Putin doesn’t really want to invade Ukraine, but will if he can achieve “strategic depth” in no other way. We should know soon enough if the author is correct.
