The scandal has helped both countries to gain the kind of publicity they strived for without damaging their relationship.
Previously, ambitious members of the Russian elites climbed the career ladder by taking part in the Leaders of Russia contest and training programs for governors. Now the career pipeline runs through Ukraine, and anyone reluctant to radicalize will find themselves sidelined.
Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts
It’s important for the Kremlin to keep the average Russian from feeling like anything actually depends on them, so it is trying to create a semblance of normalcy at a time of war.
Putin’s war on Ukraine is not only strengthening the emerging national identity of Ukrainians; it is also decisively changing the post-Soviet identity of many Russians.
If no “party of peace” is emerging organically in Ukraine, Moscow appears prepared to create one artificially in order to hold peace talks with Medvedchuk instead of Zelensky: effectively, with itself.
A recent poll showed that 46 percent of Serbs believe that their country should stay neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war, confirming that a balancing act appears to be the least costly strategy for the Serbian government.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has declared full independence from the Moscow Patriarchate, but for now that independence is recognized only by itself.
The trends of 2022 in no way signal decentralization or re-federalization. Russia’s central government adheres to a simplified version of the Soviet model, which includes a rigid power vertical.
The aim of the ceasefire proposal was to force the Ukrainian army and politicians to reject it in view of the Ukrainian public, who are often left without electricity, water, heating, or transport by Russia’s bombing campaign.