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> Putin/Lavrov cannot afford for Ukraine to be a long term success, another East Slavic rival to their own regime not under their domination. I think this is a
by euroderf 3y ago
> Putin/Lavrov cannot afford for Ukraine to be a long term success, another East Slavic rival to their own regime not under their domination.
I think this is also some of the logic of the PRC w.r.t. Taiwan. Who in the PRC wants to concede that the Chinese diaspora is huge and that it can contain a multitude of sociopolitical systems ?
Much as American states are the "laboratories of democracy".
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoYes, absolutely. I tend to think of it like this: we are not talking about a bipolar world which is "the-west" vs "not-the-west"; we are instead talking about two visions of modernism emerging out of the enlightenment and the development of modernity: one that emphasizes some democracy and chaotic diversity and another that emphasizes uniformity and control. (The market economy is perhaps parallel to this, both visions can accommodate a capitalist market system.) Multiparty, ethnic diversity, multicultural vs single-leader national chauvinism, etc. There are ideological proponents of either vision within both "east" and "west." But the crisis in Ukraine has erupted in such a way that it is effectively counterpoising one against the other. That is not to say that the ruling parties in Ukraine are in any way pro "ethnic diversity" and "democratic"; they are in large part old school national chauvinist and fairly corrupt. But in resisting singular Russian hegemony the Ukrainian people are in large part appealing to something far more anti-oppressive.