{"id":2016,"date":"2022-03-17T03:29:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T03:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vor.org.ng\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2022-08-11T19:50:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:50:06","slug":"psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Femi Olugbile
\nVladimir Putin is an easy man to caricature. He walks with a left to right swagger of his upper body. Perhaps he believes it conveys a sense of power and authority. To any practiced eye, it gives him the aspect of a street bully. There are other aggressively masculine attitudes he proudly displays. He rides a horse, he shoots rifles, he fights judo. He has been pictured immersing himself in ice cold water. His bare torso has been splashed on the front pages of newspapers and magazines across the world. The image of \u2018lean, mean, and ready to fight\u2018 is one that he proudly proclaims for himself, and for the Russian \u2018Fatherland\u2019.
\nThe world is currently in the grip of a bizarre and unnecessary war between two nations that used to be the flagship components of the Soviet Union. The optics do not look good for Russia, and for its President, who are painted as evil minded and wicked. The Russians themselves earlier on describe the conflict as a \u2018Security Operation\u2019 to save ethnic Russians in the north of Ukraine from \u2018genocide\u2019. It was a clearly bogus description. More lately, as their original expectation of a quick victory has faded and retreat without something to show for it seems out of the question, they have doubled down, and the talk is now that the Ukrainians are their cousins who have been brain-washed by Americans, and who need to be saved from themselves, no matter what. It is an even more bogus script, but there it is.
\nThousands of people, including non-combatant women and children, but also including two thousand Russian soldiers, have died or sustained serious injuries. If the calculation on the Russian side was that they could carry out a short, sharp, and quick incursion into their troublesome neighour, effect a regime-change, removing a \u2018Pro-West\u2019 president and replacing him with a pro-Russian one, the drama has gone awry. Ukrainians are resisting stoutly, despite the Russians\u2019 preliminary shock and awe display of one of the most deadly military machines in the world rattling its sabres for several weeks on their neighbour\u2019s borders.
\nIt is necessary to go beyond the optics to get an understanding of the psychology underpinning a conflict that has brought the world precariously close to an expanded war between \u2018West\u2019 and East\u2019 \u2013 in reality a Third World War, and even the apocalyptic scenario of a thermonuclear conflagration.
\nA little over three decades ago, two major events occurred which represented the managed implosion of the \u2018Iron Curtain\u2019 and the end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall, for long the line of demarcation between \u2018East\u2019 and \u2018West\u2019, was torn down. The second event was that under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, who introduced the Russian words \u2018glasnost\u2019 and \u2018perestroika\u2019 into the lexicon of world diplomacy, the Soviet Union, an agglomeration of nation-states centred around Russia and held together supposedly by the force of a common ideology \u2013 Communism, effectively collapsed.
\nIt is said that despite the giddy euphoria they felt at the \u2018victory\u2019 of \u2018Capitalism\u2019 over \u2018Communism\u2019, the leaders of the Western World acknowledged a quid pro quo that the Russian bear, which still owned most of the wealth and armamentarium of the Soviet Union, including the largest stockpile of offensive nuclear weapons in the world, would be given a respectful \u2018zone of influence\u2019 around itself. This would guarantee not only its security but also its national pride as a \u2018big\u2019 power, even if it was no longer a \u2018World Power\u2019.
\nIn the context of History, it was only reasonable that Russians be somewhat paranoid concerning their safety. From Napoleon to Hitler, powerful leaders from the \u2018West\u2019 have responded to an almost maniacal obsession to invade and try to conquer the Russian mainland at the peak of their powers. That they failed spectacularly on every occasion is no guarantee it cannot happen again. At the most recent try, by Hitler in the Second World War, twenty million Russians died defending their homeland, or from starvation and disease as they resisted a prolonged siege. The experience remains permanently seared into the national consciousness of all Russians.
\nThis display of emotional intelligence by the Western leaders of the time, as well as the \u2018gentleman\u2019s agreement\u2019 resulting from it, has been jettisoned in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as more and more of the new East European nations, fearful of the Russian behemoth, sought closer alliances with Western Europe, in many cases becoming members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Western nations subtly aided this process of \u2018Westernisation\u2019 by influencing local politics in these countries.
\nIn the specific case of Ukraine, whose links with Russia are the deepest of all, an elected pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych was hounded out of power by a relentless string of violent street protests supported by Western governments and such notable politicians as the late American Senator John McCain, who even travelled to Kiev to appear at the demonstrations, urging on the armed protesters. Eventually President Yanukovych had to flee from the so-called \u2018Revolutionaries\u2019 and find refuge in Russia.
\nThese were the antecedents to the present crisis that are not mentioned in the narratives of CNN or BBC.
\nNowadays a pro-Western government under a youthful President Zelenskyy is talking of deepening relations with the West, obviously to the detriment of Ukraine\u2019s Russian cousins. The possibility of NATO membership down the line is receiving active consideration.
\nIf Russia is paranoid, it is not entirely without cause.
\nThe war between Russia and Ukraine may have a certain David versus Goliath aspect to it, but it cannot in all honesty be described as purely a battle between Right and Wrong, or between Good People and Bad People, as it has tended to be portrayed in the press.
\nAnd the notion that no powerful nation should interfere in the affairs of its neighbours is \u2018ideal\u2019, but it is laughable in the realpolitik of the modern world. Americans interfere in the affairs of not only their neighbours but even people in far-flung places all the time. In places such as Iraq and Libya, they have gone in with boots on the ground or air strikes, or both. More commonly they have used the CIA to carry out assassinations, regime change, military coups and other initiatives, often against the popular will of the people in those places. From Patrice Lumumba to Salvador Allende, American power has been projected far and wide, purportedly in the service of \u2018democracy\u2019, but really in the service of what was perceived as America\u2019s \u2018national interests\u2019. It sees South America as its \u2018zone of influence\u2019, and not only has it been prepared to do all its power to bring down \u2018leftist\u2019 regimes in Nicaragua and Venezuela, it was ready to go to nuclear war with the USSR to prevent missiles being domiciled in Cuba, the equivalent of Ukraine becoming a \u2018NATO\u2019 nation.
\nIt requires little emotional intelligence to realise that other powerful countries such as China and Russia would also feel a need to try to \u2018sanitise\u2019 their neighbourhoods. A continuous failure to reflect all these dimensions in the public narrative, and a continued demonisation of not only the leadership but also the citizenry of Russia may help to make heroes out of Ukrainians, who are suffering some of the most horrendous deprivation and dislocation the world has seen in this century, but it will not help to bring the war to a quick end or win a sustainable peace, all of which would require discussion and negotiation.
\nFrom an African perspective, there is another side to the story and character of the region of war which has come out in the conflict. Ukraine, as well as other former Soviet Republics in Eastern Europe, including Russia itself, is in a region which is probably more racist than any other region on earth. Racial discrimination is deeply entrenched in their history and tradition. Some people were shocked to hear of several incidents of Nigerian students and other Africans being mistreated by officials and ordinary Ukrainians during the ongoing crisis. It is not new. It goes with the territory.
\nWe have on our hands a war of minds, as well as a war of guns and missiles. It is also a war in the topsy-turvy mind of a certain Vladimir Putin, who may well have been traumatized by the prolonged isolation and uncertainty of the COVID19 experience as some psychologists have opined. He has boxed himself into a corner. Having gone so far, he can only extricate himself if he has something to show for his Russian dead and the opprobrium he has caused his nation. To end the conflict on any other terms would be political, and possibly physical, suicide for him.
\nEverybody is playing this game with a less than honest hand. There are no heroes and demons here, only people navigating their way through some of the more dangerous and unsavoury realities of power politics in the twentieth century world. None of Ukraine\u2019s vociferous supporters can put boots on the ground in Kiev or put fighter jets in the air over the stricken conflict area for fear of precipitating a World War.
\nIf the mind war, along with the shooting war is to end soon, everybody, Ukraine, Russia and NATO -and principally the USA, would need to come off their \u2018moral\u2019 high horses and think themselves into the minds of the other parties, putting all their cards on the table and shunning the temptation to further stoke the unbalanced narrative and disinformation dominating the news media. That way, a livable, sustainable compromise, probably equally disliked by all \u2013 for different reasons, may open the door to peace and save the world from Armageddon.
\nSource: Synthesiz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Femi Olugbile Vladimir Putin is an easy man to caricature. He walks with a left to right swagger of his upper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[737],"tags":[305,696,697,177],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ussr","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nPsychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Femi Olugbile Vladimir Putin is an easy man to caricature. He walks with a left to right swagger of his upper…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voice of Reason\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T03:29:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T19:50:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/\",\"name\":\"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-17T03:29:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-11T19:50:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/91559f4e2f3e76b97df68b1ffb23afa4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/\",\"name\":\"Voice of Reason\",\"description\":\"Your No. 1 Source of Mind Blowing Articles\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/91559f4e2f3e76b97df68b1ffb23afa4\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd607f124d89a2e9ee3bcd1565b126ea93e9164bf63a6d09fa320f456a4e9425?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd607f124d89a2e9ee3bcd1565b126ea93e9164bf63a6d09fa320f456a4e9425?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason","og_description":"By Femi Olugbile Vladimir Putin is an easy man to caricature. He walks with a left to right swagger of his upper…","og_url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/","og_site_name":"Voice of Reason","article_published_time":"2022-03-17T03:29:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-11T19:50:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":200,"url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/","url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/","name":"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Voice of Reason","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-03-17T03:29:52+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-11T19:50:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/91559f4e2f3e76b97df68b1ffb23afa4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/putin-300x200-1.jpeg","width":300,"height":200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2022\/03\/17\/psychology-of-the-russo-ukrainian-war\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Psychology of the Russo-Ukrainian War"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#website","url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/","name":"Voice of Reason","description":"Your No. 1 Source of Mind Blowing Articles","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/91559f4e2f3e76b97df68b1ffb23afa4","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd607f124d89a2e9ee3bcd1565b126ea93e9164bf63a6d09fa320f456a4e9425?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd607f124d89a2e9ee3bcd1565b126ea93e9164bf63a6d09fa320f456a4e9425?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor"],"url":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3165,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/3165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}