Today, Vladimir Putin is too obsessed and cut off from reality to negotiate | Marie Mendras
- Суспільство
- 46 хвилин
- 9 квітня 2025
Marie Mendras is a political scientist and professor at the Sciences Po Paris. For many years, she has been researching Eastern Europe and Russia, and has participated several times as part of international observer groups for elections in Russia and Ukraine in the 1990s and 2000s.
In her latest book, "Permanent War: The Ultimate Strategyof the Kremlin," Mendras writes that waging wars in differentcountries has been an instrument for Vladimir Putin to maintain his power from the very beginning of his rule. Due to the lack of real reasons for military actions, he invented these motives, such as the fight against terrorism, the oppression of Russian-speaking populations, or the need for "denazification." The author believes that Putin was the only one who sought a total aggressive war in Ukraine in 2022 and imposed it on his military commanders. He was dissatisfied with the semi-controlled situation in Ukraine, which he had achieved through the war in Donbas in 2014 and the annexation of Crimea — this was not enough for him. Because he was misinformed and only wanted to hear what he wanted, the president of Russia did not foresee either the resistance of the Ukrainians or the support for Kyiv from Western countries. "The war was his choice. He had other options. The choice he made alone was a huge mistake, and everybody is paying very dearly for that mistake," says Marie Mendras.
Journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk talks to Marie Mendras about Putin’s and Trump’s mistakes and what connects them, about negotiations and what they may lead to, as well as the obsession of the current Trump administration and what might stop them.
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