Is The Problem With Russia A Sense of Disrespect?

 I read Brian Stewart's review of Sergey Radchenko’s To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power, Going to War for Respect: Sergey Radchenko’s history of the Cold War helps us understand Putin’s Russia. and I learned some things that make some sense. I particularly agree with his conclusion. 

In prison, everyone talks about respect. They mean deference. They also tend to see respect as a one-way street. Equality is a hard thing to achieve wherever you go; especially when equality is felt as being a down grade.

This is presented as the book's thesis:

Radchenko does not rely solely or even chiefly on Marxist ideology to explain Soviet behavior. According to him, “the sources of Soviet ambitions are not specifically Soviet, but both precede and post-date the Soviet Union, overlapping with the Cold War.” Radchenko claims that it is almost impossible to separate ideology from “the quest for security (in the benign version) or outright imperialism (more commonly accepted).” In other words, this can be a distinction without much difference. The Soviets unwaveringly sought to impose their authority, both as a matter of interest and to advance their ideology—Khrushchev, a “revolutionary romantic,” was “keen on stressing . . . his revolutionary duty to help the “anti-imperialist struggle.” But Soviet ambition can’t be divorced from its sense of pride and honor of being a protagonist (or antagonist) in a volatile world with others vying for mastery, and the sense of self-doubt that ambition fed and fed on: “At some level the Soviets felt very insecure about whether or not they really were America’s equals.”

And the conclusion that I like so much:

Schönbach was right that Putin—and Russia—“deserves respect.” But respect doesn’t have to imply deference, to say nothing of submission. Respect for Russia today would begin by acknowledging Putin’s agency. As he forms a key node in the axis of revisionists, it is the kind of respect that would manifest in the continued and increased provision of heavy armaments to Ukraine.

As we said in prison: respect is earned. Defeat Putin, and then give respect to Russia.

sch 7/10