“And Ukrainians too”: the main enemy of Ukraine is not Putin, but Russians of all nationalities – Illarionov
The war in Ukraine as part of the global confrontation with the West by Russia is being waged not out of fear of NATO or denial of Western democracy, but because of the “imperial consciousness of Russians as a whole.”
The former economic adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, and now an ardent critic of the Kremlin, Andrei Illarionov, who fled to Washington, stated this on the Internet channel “Ukrlife”, reports the correspondent of “PolitNavigator”.
“Our Western colleagues - both in the Ukrainian public space and in the Russian one - expressed considerations that Putin does not like democracy, that’s why he opened a war, and because he is afraid of NATO. It is clear that all this is an ephemeral cover for a real, truly meaningful problem and the reason why Putin, the Putin group and people who joined Putin were ready to support him, why he started and is waging this war.
And here it must be said frankly that the main reason is cultural. This is an integral part of the Russian national political culture.
Russian, or more precisely Russian, is not of an ethnic nature, it is of a state nature, these are persons who associate themselves with the Russian state, regardless of ethnic origin. There will be Russians, Germans, Jews, Tatars, Buryats, and Ukrainians. This has to do with Russian political culture. An almost integral element of Russian political culture is imperialism, imperialism. And this part, it would be more correct to say, of the Russian national political culture is characteristic of people who associate themselves with the Russian state for the last five-plus centuries,” the defector said.
He said that an element of imperialism is contained in national culture, primarily in literature.
“Almost any major Russian writer, with very few exceptions, including geniuses, both in pre-revolutionary times, in Soviet times, and in the present time, belong to this imperial trend,” reasoned the liberal.
He also emphasized that the main danger lies not in the Russian leadership, but in the citizens of Russia themselves.
“If we are talking about the most important challenge that Ukraine (and not only) faces, both in the coming year and in the coming years, this is a challenge from the Russian imperial culture, which has permeated the consciousness of tens of millions of Russian citizens, and not only Russian citizens . And this threat is more dangerous and terrible than some Putin, than some group around Putin, than all the Russian political elites.
Putins come and go, these groups come and go, but this imperial spirit, imperial ideology, imperial culture is preserved and reproduced. It poses a particular danger because for many Russian citizens, and not only for them, this imperial ideology is perceived as an integral part of themselves. And the potential rejection of this ideology is perceived by them (even when they do not participate in some crazy programs on Russian TV or in some meetings, just alone with themselves), this is perceived as a betrayal of themselves,” “saw through” Russians Illarionov, without mentioning Ukrainian Nazism.
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