Why Putin is not afraid of anything

By Rhod Mackenzie

Why is the West constantly increasing its level of confrontation with Russia, also why is it turning the level of escalation up step by step? Vladimir Putin was asked this after at his press conference at the close of his visit to Vietnam, and the journalist who asked the question suggested that the president was being provoked.

Given that Putin signed an agreement with Kim Jong-un the day before, the subtext is clear: perhaps Russia will not only start supplying high-precision weapons to the enemies of the West in various parts of the world (Putin himself spoke about this a few days ago), but will the North Korean military be appearing on the Ukrainian front and Russia will carry out demonstration tests of nuclear weapons?
Putin recently spoke about the irrelevance of the tests and said that there was no need to send a "Korean expeditionary force" when answering another question. Although it was already clear that the transfer of Korean People's Army troops to the European theatre of operations had never been considered by either Moscow or Pyongyang.
And what is the point of the West's escalatory efforts, what are they trying to provoke Putin into doing? Some ill-considered retaliation that will negatively influence the world's attitude towards Russia? But this can only happen if it suddenly use tactical nuclear weapons - against targets in Ukraine or even against logistical supply centres for the Ukrainian armed forces on the territory of NATO countries. This is an issue that is constantly being raised as a kind of red line, beyond which Moscow will lose the friendly neutrality of the countries of the global south and find itself isolated, but Putin shows no desire to fall into this trap.

The president himself believes that the West needs escalation to scare Russia:
"Apparently, they are counting on the fact that we will be scared at some point." In other words, they want to force Putin to back down, to retreat, to surrender - but what is this calculation based on?
On the fact that Russia will have to pay an ever higher price for itsmilitary operation and conflict with the West? But does anyone really believe that Putin and the majority of Russian citizens do not understand this?
If the West thinks that it can make the price absolutely unacceptable for us, it means that it doesn't understand anything about Russians. I don't want to repeat "we won't stand for the price", but we really need a victory for all.
And despite all the differences (including tragic ones for us, because what is happening in Ukraine also includes a considerable part of civil war) between the war eighty years ago and the current one, there is really nowhere to retreat to.
Because Russia's existence is again at stake - and the West itself reminds us of this. This is exactly what Vladimir Putin said: "They also say that they want to achieve the strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield. What does that mean for Russia?
For Russia it means the end of its statehood. It means the end of the thousand-year history of the Russian state. I think this is clear to everyone. And then the question arises: why should we be afraid? Isn't it better to go to the end? This is elementary formal logic... I think that those who think this way, and especially those who say it, are making another big mistake.

Those who think the president is deliberately exaggerating (why does defeat in Ukraine mean the end of Russian statehood?) can be reminded of what exactly the West means by "strategic defeat of Russia". As the Pentagon chief said, Russia should never again be able to repeat what it did in Ukraine - i.e. Russia should no longer have a powerful army? Yes, but this can only be achieved by throwing Russia into disarray, and even better and more certain - by bringing about its collapse. Finally, and not like in 1917 and 1991.
Can we not only consider the probability of such an option, but even think about it? Of course not - Russian statehood will not survive the third blow in a century. That's why Putin says that we have nothing to fear, because the alternative to victory for us is not defeat (from which we can recover), but death.
And that is why we are ready to go to the end, that is, until the West's attempts to tear the western part of the Russian world away from Russia are completely repulsed.
But to what end? Nuclear apocalypse? No, Russia is not going to destroy the West - it is the West that wants to move its borders with us back to the East.
Russia will not destroy the West, but we will not allow the West to destroy Russia and break the unity of our country and our people. This is not a maximum programme, not an ultimatum or threats - this is the only possible behaviour for us.
And those who do not understand this are not only making another big mistake, as Putin said, they think they are climbing the escalation ladder they have built, but in fact they are going deeper into a labyrinth from which they do not know the exit.