Timothy Snyder: Defeating Russia is the best thing we could do for Russia

Defeating Russia is the best thing the West could do for Russia’s future, argues Timothy Snyder, the distinguished American historian, in an interview given to Radio Free Europe. Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University the author of highly acclaimed books on Central and Eastern Europe, covering Ukraine, such as Bloodlands and Black Earth.

“It would be good for them to lose this war, just like it was good for France to lose in Algeria, just like it was good for Germany to lose in 1945. … What happens in Russia, though, after that is up to the Russians, up to the people who live on that territory,” Snyder told listeners.

In normal political life, the attempt to expand and preserve an empire is incompatible with upholding the rule of law and human rights, argues the historian. “One sees that with Russia, they’re obviously trying to just carry out a genocide in Ukraine, but the war makes it impossible for any kind of normal politics to function in Russia. Do I think the Russian Empire has to fall apart? The Russian state could continue without being an empire. That’s also possible. I think that’s more likely,” Snyder said.

The potential collapse of Russia is one of the scenarios that the free world needs to prepare for. “I personally don’t think the Russian Federation will fall apart. But what I’m sure of is that it’s not going to be America that does it. It’ll be Russians or Chechens or Bashkirs,” the historian says, developing his argument.

Modern Russia aims to control all of Ukraine and to destroy Ukrainian society and culture. “They would like the Ukrainian nation to cease to exist. This is very obvious,” Snyder noted.

The historian says he doesn’t foresee any type of future that doesn’t include a Ukrainian state on the territory of present-day Ukraine. “And I just don’t see that as very likely. The war may end in various ways, but I don’t think it will end the way the Russians want, with complete control over Ukrainian territory. … If they [the Russians] control the entire territory, you can imagine a government in exile, you can imagine Ukrainian culture in exile. But I just don’t believe that will happen,” Snyder argued.

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