By Terry Simmons
Special Contributor
Vladimir Putin is on his way to legendary status. The Firebird of Russian Folklore is based both in the cultural and political histories of the Russian Empire throughout its many manifestations over the last 1,000 years. The Russian Firebird (or Zhar Ptitsa), is not unique to Russian culture but is most persistent in its variations and consistency. The legend states that Russia has been an empire throughout institutional memory throughout the ages.
The Firebird is also known as the Phoenix or the mystical bird that lives in five hundred year cycles and is able to regenerate from injury and is, therefore, immortal. With spectacular red and gold plumage that illuminates its flight, it can be viewed as a sign of divinity as well as fire. Used as a metaphorical message of hope and endurance against adversity, it is defined in our present socio-cultural context as a unified symbol of hope and endurance against the current perceived political wrongs perpetuated mostly by NATO against the Russian Fatherland in its USSR manifestation since the collapse at the hands of the American proxy (NATO) in 1991.
According to legend, the Phoenix builds its nest as it nears the end of its life cycle and sets the nest on fire only to emerge from the ashes as a new Phoenix. In Russian folklore, it is a mixed blessing as it may be considered a creature of blessing or as a harbinger of doom to those who attempt to capture it. The strength of the folklore image is psychologically and politically important in view of Putin’s recent foreign policy forays into Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and now Ukraine.
By effectively denying EU membership to former Soviet Union members, particularly Georgia and Ukraine, and reorientation by military and economic force toward Moscow of those former republics and territories, Putin is using Agi-prop (agitation-propaganda operations) and Psy-war (using psychological vulnerabilities against a population for political gain) tactics to manufacture crises throughout the former empire; cries for assistance from substantial Russian-speaking populations send Russian military and political forces running to their rescue. This provides the political cover in the form of accepted international law norms for Putin to justify interventionism as an operating principle to protect Russian ex-patriots and aspiring Russophiles back to the fold.
President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush promised not to use NATO as a re-containment tool to again surround Russia after the collapse of the USSR. President Clinton reaffirmed those promises to Boris Yeltsin in the American attempt to steer Russia’s fledgling democracy down the right path after many years of socialism-communism and a command economy during the Cold War era. NATO expansion, however, followed closely on the heels of eastward EU expansion into the former Russian eastern European satellites.
NATO was revitalized and expanded right up to the Russian borders in contravention of those promises. Putin is attempting to reverse the damage caused by those betrayals according to Russian declaratory policy through the Russian SVR (their foreign policy intelligence service). The western view of a Russian return to empire and a new Cold War confrontation do not cede this dynamic to the Russian Federation. Indeed, a recasting off Russian motives as revanchist imperialism are a purposeful tactic to cast Putin in an aggressive image who is threatening extreme damage to the international political system by creating massive instability.
It is axiomatic that an enemy be vilified in order to combat him more emphatically and effectively as well as for political justification purposes. It may however, be much more productive, in terms of re-stabilizing international politics, to realize Russian motives for what they are and to eventually realize an acceptable geopolitical quid pro quo for both sides of this destabilizing dilemma.
Putin does not want kinetic or nuclear warfare with the United States. This is a battle Russia is not prepared for. He is apparently willing; however, to risk some systemic economic- political dislocation to his country if the opportunity costs are not too high and there is reasonable expectation that he may win concessions from the decreasingly hegemonic United States and the NATO alliance. In terms of his domestic costs, he is risking little, even in the eyes of the young democratic inclined segments of the Russian population who are tied more to the modern world through international social media than to Russian mysticism and nostalgia for the “good old days,” that tends to reside with the older citizens who were once strongly communist and faithful to the Soviet Union.
Why introduce Russian mysticism through folklore with Realpolitik and the realist world of international relations? It appears what has been lacking in current analyses concerning Putin, is the cultural motivation piece. I am asked consistently for an answer to this question in my classrooms and radio and TV appearances for SPEA’s Provocate and Global Indy, Consider This and Fox Radio News: Why is Putin doing it and what does he want? Some of the answer might just be found in consideration of the Russian political-cultural psyche and the recurrence of the powerfully transitional Russian Firebird through the regenerative Phoenix. The Russians are a strong people as witnessed by the endurance of their thousand year empire but they are also strongly mystical and hopeful as to their place in the sun.
The Firebird is well seated in that Russian psyche. Understanding that may offer a better understanding of how to resolve important issues of geopolitical pride with them.
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