By Hannah Butts
On Wednesday, March 2nd, NYU Prague hosted Michael Romancov, a leading expert on political geography at Metropolitan University Prague, to give a talk titled, “An Overview of the War in Ukraine.” In his talk, he spoke about Vladimir Putin, and gave context to NYU students about how the state of affairs came to be in Russia, spearheaded by an indomitable leader.
First, Romancov began by making it clear that he is not anti-Russian, but rather anti-Putin. According to social media such as TikTok and Facebook, this seems to be a shared sentiment by many Russians in recent times. Romancov pointed out that many everyday citizens don’t fully understand what is going on, and therefore don’t really know what to think, but they do not actively support the actions Putin is taking against Ukraine.
In order to understand what is going on today between the two countries, it is necessary to take a dive into history. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Russian Empire experienced rapid growth. At one point, it was the biggest country in the world, with spheres of influence reaching well beyond its own borders. After WWI however, the structure of political boundaries was altered, and the Russian Empire shrunk. One of Putin’s goals today is to return Russia to the great empire it once was, and one step toward accomplishing this is to claim what he already thinks is rightfully his, the otherwise internationally-recognized independent nation of Ukraine.
Why does Putin believe that Ukraine does not have the right to exist as a nation or individual state? To answer this, Romancov gives some background on Putin, explaining that he was born, raised and educated in the Soviet Union. During this period, nationalist sentiments became centered around themes of expansion and domination. Thus growing up in Soviet times, Putin was bred to full heartedly believe that Russia can and should return to its previous Soviet-Era glory by taking over nearby territories.
Romancov called attention to the idea that everything Putin is trying to do stems from Soviet thought, not Russian thought. He even said, “everything that went wrong in the evil nature of the Soviet Union is in Putin’s eyes.”
Throughout European history, borders between countries have undergone frequent, rapid and massive changes. However, Putin does not question the borders of other countries such as Finland, which also borders Russia, so why is it only the Ukrainian border that Putin doesn’t recognize as legitimate?
Part of the ambiguity with Ukraine’s independence stems from the huge population of ethnic Russians currently living in Ukraine. Putin likes to argue that these ethnic Russians are being mistreated by the Ukrainian government, and he uses this as a justification for his war.
In addition, taking a look at the languages spoken throughout the country, it is very common for Ukrainians’ first language to be Russian. In fact, the entire east side of the country is dominated by the Russian language. This adds to Putin’s belief that this area of Ukraine especially should be under Russian control.
However, Romancov begs the question, why does the lack of one single language take away Ukraine’s right to exist independently? There are many countries such as India, China and Belgium where the citizens all speak multiple languages, including those that are native to other nations, and Romancov asks, do these entities also not have the right to exist?
In Russian, the word for “outskirts” is “okraina,” which bears a striking similarity to the sound of the word “Ukraine.” This shows how ingrained it is in Russian society that people living in Ukraine are simply living on the outskirts of Russia, a sentiment Putin has wholeheartedly accepted and continuously seeks to proliferate. According to Romancov, to Putin, the entity first thought of when western countries hear the word “Ukraine” does not exist and never has.
Putin’s logic may be flawed and outdated, but it is extremely important to understand in order to gain deeper comprehension about the modern day conflict between Russia and Ukraine.