Ehm

This “russia expert” has been wrong about EVERYTHING in this war. Anatol Lieven said before russia’s full scale invasion that russia wouldn’t invade because “there clearly is a desire in Moscow to pursue a diplomatic path”. He said the world had no options anyway beyond cutting russia off from SWIFT but that russia could easily plunge Europe into a major energy and economic crisis by turning off its gas. When the full scale war began, he said “Russia will do their utmost not to target civilians in Ukraine or Ukrainian cities, because their whole political plan depends on keeping enough of the population on their side.” He also kept claiming that the West had few options and that Europeans would endure rationing and instability even if it just sanctioned russia in response. At the same time, he has peddled excuses about why the West is also to blame for russia’s invasion as it provided the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU or NATO. He does not stop to think what Ukrainians want for their own country or whether they might be allowed sovereign rights. Lieven actually wrote an entire book called “Ukraine and Russia: A fraternal rivalry”, unable to detach himself from the russian chauvinist perspective even when thinking up the title. You may not be shocked to learn that Anatol Lieven is a member of the Valdai Club for russian assets. Lieven has also argued that russia is only “semi-authoritarian”, resorting to whataboutism in its defence. Now the “expert” wants to tell us russian perspectives on how they’d probably be ok ending their genocidal war with the reward of Ukrainian territory because it’s all getting a bit difficult for those poor mysterious souls. Most hilariously, he says here that russian liberals are in a dilemma about how to oppose the war without supporting Ukraine. Er, no. They are in a dilemma about how to keep pretending to be liberal without supporting Ukraine. But it doesn’t actually matter whether he’s right or wrong about what most russians think. We don’t care. Get this into your head, Lieven and other “russia experts”: The world is not interested anymore in russian public opinion. All that matters is victory for Ukraine, Special Tribunal for russia, reparations, and ultimately the defeat of russian imperialism and its cycle of violence. This is not an offer. You are not gonna get a choice to accept it or not. In the meantime, stop being so self-absorbed and tone deaf, and start helping Ukraine win sooner. And, to the media, stop giving a platform to these disgraced frauds unless it’s to ridicule their bad takes and highlight the corrupt relationships on which those takes were developed. There are millions of us, especially in our region bordering russia, that predicted everything russia is doing. We may not have been invited to the Valdai Club or called ourselves experts on russia but that’s exactly why we get it right. Give a platform to more voices from Ukraine (and also the Baltics, Poland, and other countries with experience of russia). We’ll help you understand russia better, but more importantly, help you understand why you don’t need to focus so much on them.