Ending Russia as an “Aggressive” Great Power
摘要
This chapter studies how the invasion of Ukraine activated the alliance between Western state officials, various non-state groups with anti-Russian agendas, and Ukrainian lobbyists acting on behalf of the Ukrainian state. While the Western officials aimed to “strategically defeat” Russia on the battlefield, the non-state groups had more ambitious goals to reorder Russia as a culture and state, following the example of defeated Nazi Germany. They planned to achieve their goals by linking Russia’s human rights violations and war crimes to the country’s “inherently aggressive” culture of conducting war, by denying such crimes and violations by the Ukrainian soldiers, and by pressuring Western governments to impose the harshest possible sanctions and increase military aid for Kyiv beyond what was already provided.