Democracies must help Ukraine to win the war and isolate Russia to make the world a safer place for our grandchildren

An op-ed on VoxUkraine together with Ilona Sologoub

The op-ed is published here where you can read it in full.

Here’s a quote:

The majority of decision makers have finally realised that Ukraine needs to liberate all of its occupied territories. But any hopes that this will be enough to deter the Kremlin to attack Ukraine again in the future are pure fantasies. Putin’s war is supported by the Russian elites and people. After decades of propaganda, Russians not only believe that democracies in the West want to destroy Russia, but also that Russia is the beacon of civilization. They believe that  Russian culture and values should be imposed on the “decadent West.” Hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled the country to avoid mobilisation did so out of fear of being killed on the battlefields, not because they oppose the war. Mass demonstrations against the war never materialised even from Russians outside of Russia.

Whether Putin dies or is replaced is of no consequence. He will be replaced by someone with the same imperialistic ambitions. Russia is aiming for a long-term war or a series of wars against the West. Having an unrestricted ability to levy the cost of war on the Russian population, the FSB (Russian deep state) is hoping to win the war of attrition with the West. To prevent this, the West should implement the policy of maximally isolating Russia along economic, technological, political and cultural dimensions. Ultimately, Russia should become more isolated than North Korea. Specific policy steps to achieve this are as follows.

These policy steps are elaborated in the article.

A key point in the article is that severing economic ties with ruZZia is less costly than most people think. ruZZia does not have a lot to offer in terms of exports apart from energy products. Except for energy, which mattered mostly for countries now sanctioning ruZZia, the ruZZian economy does not have a lot to offer. And it is not an important market for most countries, less than one percent of GDP is created due to Russian final demand.