3: 8. The Misreading of Russia: Ideology and the Insufficiency of Alliances The debate over whether Ukraine should join the EU or NATO fundamentally misses the core issue: Russia's unwavering ideological belief that it must dominate and control Ukraine. If R

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

8. The Misreading of Russia: Ideology and the Insufficiency of Alliances The debate over whether Ukraine should join the EU or NATO fundamentally misses the core issue: Russia's unwavering ideological belief that it must dominate and control Ukraine. If Russians are driven by this revanchist, neo-imperialist ideology, they will continue to seek control regardless of Ukraine's alliances, potentially through misinformation or political interference. American administrations (including Obama, Trump, and Biden) and many Western European powers have consistently misread Russia, treating it as rational or transactional, and thus failed to take its ideological goals seriously. This lack of understanding about Russia's commitment to control Ukraine means that any proposed "settlement" that does not acknowledge Ukraine as an independent state is doomed. Countries like the Baltics and Poland, which have hands-on experience dealing with Russia, correctly recognized the persistent threat but were often dismissed as overly dramatic.1855 CRIMEA

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchew with Professor Eugene Finkel of Johns Hopkins. The book is intent to destroy,
0:06.0	highly recommended, before you form an opinion about what is to be done with Ukraine and the Ukraine
0:13.0	war. Russia's 200-year quest to dominate Ukraine. I recommend this to the European Union, to the European
0:19.2	Union Commission, now making decisions about
0:22.6	continuing to buy natural gas from Russia to the NATO forces who are not any longer
0:29.6	unanimous about the resistance to Russia.
0:32.5	I recommend the facts, but I turn to the professor also.
0:36.0	Professor, I know NATO is the explanation that Putin
0:40.5	offers the Russian people as to why he maintains the war with huge, huge casualties. And what
0:48.1	you'd have to say is a damage to a generation in Russia and the economy that will be many years in recovering. However, at the same time,
0:58.0	I want to know about the EU because the EU membership is not the same as NATO. It is the original
1:06.2	debate that was happening in Ukraine before the 2014 crisis.
1:13.6	Is the EU adequate for Ukraine now?
1:17.6	Is that imaginable?
1:18.6	Is that a way out for the European Commission to take charge of rebuilding NATO and providing
1:24.6	security?
1:25.6	Well, I would very much want, you know, Ukraine to join the EU and also NATO.
1:32.3	But I think, you know, if I'm right, then all those debates about which organization
1:39.3	Ukraine would or could not or should or should not join.
1:42.3	Just miss the core point.
1:45.7	If it's a war about history and about ideology and if Russians are really serious about,
1:51.4	you know, Ukraine not being a real state and them having to control Ukraine either directly
	...

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