Putin is just as difficult to lose war in Ukraine as to win it - an expert

According to former Russian diplomat Alexander Baunov, the lack of clearly defined goals of Russia in the war against Ukraine makes the definition of victory uncertain. But this factor also makes the criteria of defeat. The surrender of Kherson's Russian troops may not affect the power of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. The former Russian diplomat, publicist and expert of the Moscow Center Carnegie Alexander Bunun writes about it in his column for Financial Times.

According to him, the lack of clearly defined goals of Russia in the war against Ukraine makes the definition of victory uncertain. But this factor also makes the criteria of defeat. The fact is that the Russian leader has already survived a few serious defeats. Initially, Putin's plan and his entourage for Blitzkrig in Ukraine and the capture of Kiev in three days fell, and then the Russian troops retreated from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. The Russian fleet lost its flagship cruiser "Moscow".

Then the Russians left the Snake Island, quickly retreated from the Kharkiv region, throwing their equipment on the road. A symbolically important defeat for the Russian Federation was an explosion on the Crimean bridge. "Other leaders may have already been overthrown with such military failures, but not Putin," Baunov writes. The publicist explains that Putin's supporters do not perceive a full -scale invasion of Ukraine as an act of aggression.

For them, this revenge is a much more powerful event, he says. "Researchers of Russian society are watching a striking paradox. History puts Russia in the list of great Western colonial empires. But after defeat in the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic difficulties of 1990s, more and more Russians felt that they had become a colony-driven colony. They believe that they dismiss the yoke that has humbled their country and "imposed" capitalism ", - the expert continues.

In this regard, any form of resistance to the event in Russia is considered a victory, no matter how the end result. "Even in the retreat, they will be comforted by the idea that prevented the" further enslavement of "Russia. This is why there is no direct connection between Putin's military failures and the weakening of Putin's power," Baunov said. It is just as difficult for the Russian president to lose the war against Ukraine as winning it, the expert sums up.