Columns

In this essay, Françoise Thom analyzes the imperialist and expansionist drive of the Russian Empire, which persists in the Soviet and post-Soviet era. This messianic, expansionist, and militaristic propensity, reaching its peak under Putin, is inseparably linked to the autocratic matrix of Russian power. It is this matrix that Russia must rid itself of if it is to become a normal country, preoccupied with its own prosperity rather than the enslavement of others. European security depends on the eradication of Russian despotism. 

Russian propagandists accuse Europe of having forfeited its moral values and claim that Russia is now the repository of these values. This rhetoric resonates with some conservatives. In this essay, our author examines how, far from defending European “civilization”, the Putin regime has turned into “an apocalyptic sect led by a demented guru”.

Françoise Thom’s latest analysis on DeskRussie was well received, as was « The second front: how Russia wants to undermine Western support for Ukraine ». Who benefits from the crime? Who benefits from the destabilisation of today’s world, if not Vladimir Putin and his supporters: China, Iran, North Korea, not forgetting Hamas, who want to establish a new world order? The Valdaï speech illustrates this desire to « destroy the international order to replace it with chaos » in order to “indulge in unrestrained depredations”, as Françoise Thom puts it. Russia’s support for Hamas displayed by Putin and his propagandists is the latest illustration… As President Biden reminded us, in Ukraine as in Gaza, Putin is in charge. Putin’s speech at Valdaï deserves to be better known ! It has an air of déjà vu about it…