The Kremlin is already creating a message for the West entitled ‘We want to cease the war.’ Behind this seemingly peaceful rhetoric lies an endgame in which Putin did not change his plans for Ukraine. They remained precisely the same as a year ago. He still wants to dominate this neighboring country.
In an interview with the Kremlin news agency TASS last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged that Kyiv should give away territories controlled by Moscow. His statement maintained the tone of an ultimatum. ‘Ukraine will give away part of its land, or the Russian troops will settle this matter.’ The truth is the Russian army has not yet resolved the situation on the war fronts according to the Kremlin’s plans. The only thing the Russian armed forces can do at this stage is to continue the conflict in its current form of serious war of attrition and destroy Ukraine with heavy air strikes and missile attacks. However, military forces have not achieved these goals for more than three hundred days. Therefore Lavrov’s conditions emerged. It is the essence of the threats contained by Lavrov’s warning. He speaks openly about it. As usual, he twists the facts and accuses Kyiv of wanting to prolong the war.
Lavrov’s notice is, in practice, the agenda of Russian military diplomacy for 2023. Around that time, Vladimir Putin spoke about Russia’s willingness to start peace talks. Meanwhile, Lavrov was accusing the West of plotting to assassinate Putin. He warned public opinion by declaring a possible chance of beginning nuclear war if the conflict regarding Ukraine escalated. Furthermore, the former president Dmitry Medvedev, and present vice-chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, once more let his imagination run wild and threatened with the disintegration of the EU, the collapse of the USA, and the annexation of Ukraine territory to be seized by Poland and Hungary. Medvedev also mentioned the Fourth Reich’s creation and Poland’s partitions.
There is a deeper meaning to this cacophony of absurdities, threats, and irrational visions. Although, it is challenging to accurately grasp and assess the Kremlin’s intentions. Putin and his entourage demonstrate the agenda of their goals for 2023 addressed to the West just like that.
A year ago, on December 17, 2021, Putin presented official terms to the Western Allies and Ukraine. He was asking for: stopping NATO expansion, withdrawal of American nuclear weapons from Europe, retreating Alliance’s troops from Poland and the Baltic states, and a declaration with reassurance that there would never be an alliance between Ukraine and NATO. Putin wanted Kyiv to surrender its aspirations to join the Alliance.
December’s demands were considered a prelude to upcoming military aggression. Vladimir’s political proposal was outrageous and contained an entire catalog of Russian fears of the outside world. It was a projection of Putin’s political desires. Russian troops were gathering around Ukraine’s borders, and tensions between countries have escalated since early spring 2021. In the summer, Putin published an essay on political and historic international affairs connecting both nations. He asserted in the composition that the Russians and Ukrainians are one population. He claimed that Western countries are exclusively responsible for setting them apart. Dmitry Medvedev backed Kremlin’s leader with bold, saturated with individual anger publications. He raised the bar of tension higher with verbal accusations towards the West. Medvedev often behaves as a visionary. He is creating chaos in politics and an atmosphere of disbelief around him.
It is disturbing to witness an educated adult, the former president, prime minister, and now one of the Kremlin’s most influential people in the security field, implying such gibberish. Also, he envisions the Polish annexation of western Ukraine, which will result in the EU’s disintegration, and Poland’s partition. The American Civil War is on top of his predictions list, too.
There was a method to his madness. Medvedev is fluent in jibber-jabber like a professional internet troll. The Kremlin sacrificed his authority both then and today because Medvedev’s peak of his career is probably behind him anyway. He used it to build the right background. Medvedev’s message, along with some of the nastiest propaganda outbursts since the beginning of the war preparations, is to create the impression that there is some mad faction in the Kremlin. Radical and prone to irrational actions. Against this background, even Lavrov’s threats sound sensible. And what Putin sometimes says looks like a hand with a twig of peace stretched out towards the West.
From today’s perspective, the events at the end of 2022 faded away, surrounded by the drama of war and thousands of individual human tragedies happening daily. And today, as a year ago, Moscow wants to achieve its primary goals. If you listen carefully to the words of Lavrov and Putin, they are an offer presented as blackmail for Russian diplomacy. The political proposal for the West, not for Ukraine. The game is on!
Kyiv is treated objectively and as part of the conflict, not worthy of being included in talks about ending the war. The whole purpose of the Russian propaganda narrative is that the war is not waged by Ukraine but by the USA and Western countries. They are controlling and arming the ‘Kyiv junta.’ This statement is for making the Western populations exhausted with information flow about the war. Also, Russian television aired plenty of bizarre documentaries about how Europe suffered from hunger and cold due to the war. They are exaggerated forms of absurdity circulated on the Internet as an example of grotesque Russian propaganda.
The purpose of these actions is to plant the seed of doubts in the minds of Western societies. Or at least in their vulnerable part. The constant brainwashing of beliefs should create the impression of the possibility of finishing the war with a single move. And then the inflation, the crisis, and the energy problems will end. It is enough to force Volodymyr Zelensky to stop being stubborn. That’s what Lavrov was saying. At the same time, it divides Western communities into better and worse from Moscow’s perspective. For example, he indicates that Russia will not talk to ‘Russophobes’ in Europe. The practice of recent years shows that the Kremlin labels a ‘Russophobe’ anyone who does not comply with the Russian side of the story.
A year ago, Russia used emotional intimidation against the world about invading Ukraine. The irrational threat is a reality now. Today, it is terrorizing, continuing the war and gradually destroying Ukraine. Also still demands the same. Moscow wants societies and their politicians to become weary of the war and its economic consequences and pressure Kyiv to agree to another partition of Volodymyr Zelensky’s homeland. Words about openness to peace talks on occupied territories are clever trickery. This calculated move was and is about to stop aid for Ukraine, or at least limit it. And to start negotiations. Moscow wants a cease-fire break to redeploy its army and convince the West to withdraw some sanctions.
Meanwhile, Moscow is constantly about the same thing. Putin wants Ukraine back within Russian territory. He clarified that in the first demand a year ago.
Michał Kacewicz / belsat.eu
The opinions and thoughts in this text reflect only the author’s views.
