Member-only story
What Does Russia Look Like After this War Ends?
There will be a lot of finger-pointing but unfortunately no soul-searching
The shoulder shrug could be the national salute of Russia. The standard response to any question about crimes against humanity or any offensive act that Putin-led Russia has committed over the past two decades, has always been a simple and quick, pithy even, raise of the shoulders followed by a, “What are you gonna do (Shto podelats)?”
Those two words in Russian free people from all moral quandaries. The Russian person is always capable of falling back on that historical trampoline. Regardless of the height from which they fall, after a few scary and somewhat violent bounces, they kick their legs over the side of the bouncy thing, hurl themselves the few feet back to the earth, and carry on as if nothing at all ever happened.
If this war ends without nuclear armageddon, then that is a victory for all of us — Russians, too. The war in any case, however, won’t end well for Russia. That said, it won’t end well for Ukraine. Some sort of victory for Ukraine seems more realistic but it will have come at a horrific price. Nonetheless, history and Ukraine will determine that that was the price the country needed to pay to rid its body of the disease that is Russia.
