Opinion | This Is Why Putin Can’t Back Down

Carl von Clausewitz famously asserted that conflict is the continuation of politics by different means. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the continuation of identification politics by different means.

I don’t learn about you, however I’ve discovered the writings of standard worldwide relations consultants to be not very useful in understanding what this entire disaster is about. But I’ve discovered the writing of consultants in social psychology to be enormously useful.

That’s as a result of Vladimir Putin shouldn’t be a standard nice energy politician. He’s basically an identification entrepreneur. His singular achievement has been to assist Russians to recuperate from a psychic trauma — the aftermath of the Soviet Union — and to provide them a collective identification to allow them to really feel that they matter, that their lives have dignity.

The conflict in Ukraine shouldn’t be primarily about land; it’s primarily about standing. Putin invaded so Russians might really feel they’re an ideal nation as soon as once more and so Putin himself might really feel that he’s a world historic determine alongside the traces of Peter the Great.

Maybe we must always see this invasion as a rabid type of identification politics. Putin spent years stoking Russian resentments towards the West. He falsely claimed Russian-speakers are underneath widespread assault in Ukraine. He makes use of the instruments of conflict in an try and make Russians take satisfaction of their group identification.

The Soviet Union was a messed-up tyranny, however as Gulnaz Sharafutdinova writes in her e-book “The Red Mirror,” Soviet historical past and rhetoric gave Russians a way that they have been “living in a country that was in many ways unique and superior to the rest of the world.” People might derive a way of private significance from being a part of this bigger Soviet challenge.

The finish of the Soviet Union might have been seen as a liberation, an opportunity to construct a brand new and larger Russia. But Putin selected to see it as a catastrophic loss, one creating a sense of helplessness and a shattered identification. Who are we now? Do we matter anymore?

Like identification politicians all over the place, Putin turned this identification disaster right into a humiliation story. He coated over any incipient emotions of disgrace and inferiority by declaring: We are the harmless victims. They — America, the Westerners, the cool children at Davos — did this to us. Like different identification politicians world wide, he promoted standing resentment to assuage the injuries of trauma, the fears of inferiority.

In the primary years of his reign, he rebuilt the Russian identification. He reclaimed components of the Soviet legacy as one thing to be happy with. Mostly, his imaginative and prescient of Russian identification revolved round himself. By parading as a robust determine on the world stage, Putin might make Russians really feel proud and a part of one thing large. Vyacheslav Volodin, then the Kremlin’s deputy chief of employees, captured the regime’s mentality in 2014: “There is no Russia today if there is no Putin.”

This grand technique appeared to be totally vindicated that yr with the profitable invasion of Crimea. Having reclaimed this land, Russia might strut like an ideal energy as soon as once more. More and extra, Putin portrayed himself as not only a nationwide chief however a civilizational chief, main the forces of conventional morality in opposition to the ethical depravity of the West.

But now it’s all spun uncontrolled. Putin’s identification politics are so virulent as a result of they’re so narcissistic. Just as particular person narcissists look like inflated egotists however are actually insecure souls attempting to cowl their fragility, narcissistic nations and teams that parade their energy are sometimes really haunted by worry of their very own weak spot. Narcissists crave recognition, however they’ll by no means get sufficient. Narcissists crave psychic safety however act in self-destructive ways in which guarantee they’re usually underneath assault.

The Putin identification and Russian identification are presently inseparable. The billion ruble query is: How does a man who has spent his life battling in opposition to emotions of disgrace and humiliation react as massive components of the world rightly disgrace and humiliate him? How does a man who has spent his life attempting to seem highly effective and farseeing react as he more and more seems weak and shortsighted?

I think about that, no less than for a time, Putin can revert to the acquainted Russian “besieged fortress” narrative: The West is at all times out to get us. We at all times win in the long run.

There have been hints that Putin could be keen to chop a take care of some form of compromise and retreat from Ukraine, however that will be a shock. It would destroy the bloated and fragile private and nationwide identification that he has been constructing all these years. People have a tendency to not compromise when their very identification is at stake.

My worry is that Putin is aware of just one method to take care of humiliation, which is by blaming others and lashing out. A few years in the past my colleague Thomas L. Friedman wrote a prescient column in regards to the politics of humiliation during which he quoted Nelson Mandela: “There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated.”

Putin introduced this humiliation on himself and on his nation. Speaking as one who deeply admires a lot in Russian tradition, I believe it’s a nice crime {that a} nation with so many paths to dignity and greatness selected the trail that leads so viciously to degradation.