Pudin's personal motivations do play a prominent role in the russian state. The larger question this raises is how much the ili is really behind a invasion of ukraine. How far are those two logics now diverging in a way that could be damaging to the regime in the long run? I don't think we're going to see a kind of unified response against the war or to get rid of putin ijst.
Tony Wood returns to The Dig to discuss Russia’s invasion, what it reflects about Russian politics and geopolitics today and historically, and how the Left should be thinking about it all.
Tony's LRB essay: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n04/tony-wood2/why-didn-t-they-stop-it
Listen to past Dig eps for context on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
Tony Wood on Russia and Putin: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood
Volodymyr Ishchenko on Ukraine: thedigradio.com/podcast/ukraine-w-volodymyr-ishchenko
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