I think the idea is that Russia will withdraw to more defensible positions and then the scenario is going to play out all over again. Russia withdrawing from somewhere, after all, doesn’t mean that Ukraine has to stop pressuring.
And it’s Putin who can’t afford to lose Crimea. It has a special symbolic place in the Russian imperial narrative, sure, but giving it up might also be a welcome symbol in a turn away from imperialism. Maybe even nationalists will adopt that kind of stance, “Better lose Crimea than Siberia” kind of thinking. But all that’s very speculative, it could go a gazillion of ways and I doubt Ukraine cares terribly much in the present moment where exactly the chips will fall.
No, I think outright resolution is the goal here. There’s no reason to cede territory if they don’t have to and aren’t guaranteed peace; Ukraine is a big flat place with very little in the way of naturally defensible areas.
but giving it up might also be a welcome symbol in a turn away from imperialism.
Sorry to contradict you again, but nobody (significant) really wants to turn away from imperialism at this point. Navalny just wants a different imperialism, яблоко (the liberal, pro-Western party) is fairly irrelevant.
It appears he’s a journalist who has been living in the West since the early 'oghts, so not a significant person in internal Russian politics.
You’re right, it’s kind of impossible to rule over a territory as large, populated by tribes as diverse as Russia, without some kind of iron fisted imperialism.
Chinese history under dynasties of brutal emperors, and now the brutal Chinese Communist Party, is also a testament to that.
I’d personally prefer to have Russia’s internal security, i.e. their internal occupying forces, weakened enough by being trashed in Ukraine for multiple ethnic republics to break off and chart their own path.
Navalny’s like the Emmanuel Goldstein character in 1984: Demonized token opposition who’s just ineffective enough to let live. I know I know, they tried to poison him even…
This is as opposed to Prigozhin, who was immediately assassinated on showing some worthwhile opposition.
