Your Thoughts: Is Vladimir Putin's removal from power the only solution for ending the war in Ukraine?
Read this write up in Qurora...what do you think?
Tadeusz M.
Masters in International Relations, University of WarsawAuthor has 230 answers and 3.2M answer viewsUpdated Jan 1
There is one thing you need to realize: The main problem with this war is that in the eyes of many Russians Putin is not bad because he started the war but because he is losing it.
So, the answer depends what you mean by “ending the war” and by “removal from power”.
But generally, it may not even be the solution.
There is a strong argument that actually one of the worst things that may happen now is for Putin to lose power but for his clique to maintain it. That’s because it will give an easy way out both for Russia and the West while changing nothing in the longterm and possibly putting us in the same (or worse!) spot in few years.
In one sentence: It could offer a ceasefire with a new leader who plays a good guy but soon will capitalize politcally the anti-Western sentiment of the lost war. Except, this time Russia would be much better prepared.
There is a strong misconception of Putin as a madman who unilaterally started the war against Ukraine. Putin is top of many dogs and among those dogs the prevailing idea is that of anti-Westernism an the need of having Ukraine in Russian sphere of influence. That is also something that seems to be quite in line with the sentiment of the general Russian society.
One of the great peace mediators once said: Peace can only happen when both sides start to realize that there is more they can achieve by talks than by military means.
So, this is the first step. On the front it probably is happening already and will mature within the next 12 months.
But the next step, for peace to last, is for Russia and Russians to realize that military might is not a feasible tool to attain political goals in Europe in the XXIst century.
And for that to happen… Russia must go through some hardcore soulsearching. How exactly this occurs, nobody knows. Maybe removal of Putin is enough and the inner forces will start this process. But maybe Russia needs to lose in that war enough to redefine its interest and its role in the world. Or maybe something else.
Today, Western experts have big problem: it turned out that building European security architecture with Russia in it failed… but there is little interest in building it without Russia. As the latter would mean some kind of a new cold war.
History may remember Putin as a mad dictator, but he is not. He is part of the system and for the peace to last, the system must change, not just the one at the top of it.
Tadeusz M.
Masters in International Relations, University of WarsawAuthor has 230 answers and 3.2M answer viewsUpdated Jan 1
There is one thing you need to realize: The main problem with this war is that in the eyes of many Russians Putin is not bad because he started the war but because he is losing it.
So, the answer depends what you mean by “ending the war” and by “removal from power”.
But generally, it may not even be the solution.
There is a strong argument that actually one of the worst things that may happen now is for Putin to lose power but for his clique to maintain it. That’s because it will give an easy way out both for Russia and the West while changing nothing in the longterm and possibly putting us in the same (or worse!) spot in few years.
In one sentence: It could offer a ceasefire with a new leader who plays a good guy but soon will capitalize politcally the anti-Western sentiment of the lost war. Except, this time Russia would be much better prepared.
There is a strong misconception of Putin as a madman who unilaterally started the war against Ukraine. Putin is top of many dogs and among those dogs the prevailing idea is that of anti-Westernism an the need of having Ukraine in Russian sphere of influence. That is also something that seems to be quite in line with the sentiment of the general Russian society.
One of the great peace mediators once said: Peace can only happen when both sides start to realize that there is more they can achieve by talks than by military means.
So, this is the first step. On the front it probably is happening already and will mature within the next 12 months.
But the next step, for peace to last, is for Russia and Russians to realize that military might is not a feasible tool to attain political goals in Europe in the XXIst century.
And for that to happen… Russia must go through some hardcore soulsearching. How exactly this occurs, nobody knows. Maybe removal of Putin is enough and the inner forces will start this process. But maybe Russia needs to lose in that war enough to redefine its interest and its role in the world. Or maybe something else.
Today, Western experts have big problem: it turned out that building European security architecture with Russia in it failed… but there is little interest in building it without Russia. As the latter would mean some kind of a new cold war.
History may remember Putin as a mad dictator, but he is not. He is part of the system and for the peace to last, the system must change, not just the one at the top of it.
