Russia and Ukraine

[Pat Mustard]

I've been reading articles that try to explain the current war, and there are a few cultural and historical things at play.

* An idea that Kyiv is the birthplace of the first Rus empire, and is therefore part of Russia
* The fact that Russian has been an empire, ruled by autocrats for 1000 years.
* While the concept of Empire lost its moral foundation in the West, it is still present in Russia.
* The Soviet military doctrine that Russia must have client states as buffer zones in case the West invades like Hitler or Napoleon did.
* Russians see their culture and religion as superior.  The Russian Orthodox Church is part of the state apparatus,  declaring Western liberalism as evil.

These ideas will take generations to change.  The problem isn't just Putin.  It is history, religion, and a belief in Empire.

1) Well there was Kievan Rus', but that was a Viking trading empire whis subsumed itself int the Slavic culture over hundreds of years. By the back end of the 11th century it was falling apart, and the Mongol invasions did it in completely.
2) The Russian empire didn't really exist until the mid 1700s. There was a Russia for about 150 years beforehand but it was much smaller and weaker. And autocratic government didn't appear in what is now Russia until the 1500s, before then east Slavic states were mostly aristocratic republics or, like Muscovy, kingdoms where the aristocrats were stronger than the kings.
3) Oh, the concep of Empire is still alive and kicking in the West, we just don't use the word.

The rest I'm not going to dispute, except to mention that they're among the hallmarks of autocratic power politics.