We often here that Russians are imperialistic, militaristic, aggressive, expansionist, paranoid in relation to foreigners and foreign states, especially the West; that Russian President Vladimir Putin carried out an ‘unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine,’ and is engaged in a massive military buildup in preparation for an invasion of Europe: ‘If he wins in Ukraine, he will not stop.’ Commentators refer to Putin’s ‘fortress Russia.’ This is a reference to an intentional government propaganda effort to convince Russians that they are being surrounded by NATO and so the country must hunker down, crush opposition, and maximize its military production and prowess, making the coubntry extremely militaristic and exceptionally aggressive. At the same time, the universal Western meme is that Ukraine is a democracy and a passive victim of that ‘bad Russia.’ Putting aside Kiev’s initiation of a civil war in Donbass in April 2014, Ukraine’s powerful and now well-armed neofascist movement, and its NATO-backed military buildup prior to the February 2022 Russian effort at coercive diplomacy, a global opinion survey shows that Russia is no outlier, even with compared to the ‘alliance of democracies’ with regard to its national secuerity culture, and where it is it is it deviates in a direction counteropposite to expansionism, militarism, and aggressiveness. Ukraine and Ukrainians turn out to be more militaristic and aggressive than Russia and Russians, refuting what the media-academia misinformation complex so tirelessly exclaims.
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MOST RECENT BOOK
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.