RUSSIA’S WAR ON EVERYBODY
THE STORY OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION AND HOW AND WHY MOSCOW PUSHES FOR POWER AND INFLUENCE FAR BEYOND UKRAINE
Author: Keir Giles Publisher: Bloomsbury Price: £20 (Hardback) Released: Out now
Russia analyst Keir Giles offers a narrative built around people and historical events that have been directly impacted by Moscow’s ambition to exert power wherever it can. The author emphasises that his book deals with a country, not ordinary Russians living within its borders. He exposes the fact that Russia’s behaviour under Vladimir Putin is returning to what was normal in the Soviet era and even further back into Tsarist times.
Giles asserts that Moscow’s Cold War actions ring instantly true today. He makes the point that puzzling out Moscow’s true motivations and intentions remains a key challenge for policy-makers and the problem of ‘mirror-imaging’ has repeatedly caused confusion and misunderstanding among Western leaders. It is revealing that as soon as Putin became president in 2000, one of his first orders was to restore the Soviet national anthem.
The nature of Russia’s relationship with neighbouring countries formerly under its control lies at the root of tensions between Russia and the West, and the suffering and turmoil Putin has inflicted on these countries and across the world is no secret. The invasion of Ukraine, Giles says, will not mark a change in the nature of the Russian threat, even if Putin suffers defeat. “It takes far more than a change of ownership in the Kremlin to alter Russia’s fundamental attitudes of what it is entitled to and how it goes about getting it,” the author says. There remains the danger that what comes after the war in Ukraine could be even worse. Putin’s clearly stated aim is not likely to stop Russia’s drive to reconquer its former possessions.