24 February, 2022
In recent years Russian Federation has explicitly voiced its’ negative approach toward NATO’s eastern expansion. In December of 2021, Russia requested written guarantees, that Ukraine and Georgia would not become members of NATO. It can be seen as if with an official declaration of its’ position and demanding guarantees, Russian Federation attempted to show NATO and the EU, that it still remains an important geopolitical player and aspires to have one of the decisive roles in a solution of issues of global politics. At the same time, Russia stated, that accepting its’ direct neighbours in NATO decreases its’ defence capabilities and this process is seen as an existential threat for Russians.
This demand of Russia was met by silence from the West, which was seen by the former as a disregarding of its’ interests and demands and denial of the requests. As an answer, on February 21, Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. On February 24 he ordered a „Special Military Operation“ on the territory of Ukraine. As a reason for this „Special Operation“, he stated protection of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which, according to him, during the past years are under constant oppression from Kyiv and are, in fact, victims of genocide. According to Putin, the goal of Russia is not the occupation of Russia, but its’ demilitarization and „denazification“. [1]
Of course, we can also superficially assess the actions of Russia as irrational, „craziness“, crime against civilization and etc. Yet, we believe, that such escalation of the situation and its’ direct transition into a military conflict is a result of such misunderstanding of positions and refusal to substantially discuss the issues.
The actions of the Russian Federation, given the perspective of the Russian nation itself, may be seen as its defensive response to the threat posed to it by the global monomodal liberal order. The events that occurred after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, showed us, that the west does not want Russia as a strong ally, without a principal transformation of the Russian nation. From the end of the twentieth century to the first years of the twenty-first century, the Russian Federation attempted such a transformation, trying to integrate elements of liberal economic policy and liberal democracy into Russian daily life. Yet, this attempt was unsuccessful and through this exact failure, Russia began to focus on strengthening its geopolitical position instead of transformation.
At the same time, from the perspective of the supporters of Ukraine, the actions of the West are of defensive nature. For this purpose, western society underlines and refers to the principle of sovereignty of nations. The West considers, that attempt of Russia, to control its’ immediate neighbourhood, threatens the states within the traditional field of interest of Russia and by extension the Western world overall. Consequently, according to their position, the deployment of weapons or military units on the territory of Georgia and Ukraine is a defensive action and should not be perceived as a threat.
Such a difference between the positions of the parties and the inability to establish effective communication between them facilitates their transition to a competitive process. Consequently, they are trying to "catch up" with the opposing side, which we have clearly seen throughout the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. It is evident that the constant tensions, mistrust and psycho-typical incompatibility among them have served as the basis for the re-escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the start of a full-scale war.
