Is Putin following in Peter's footsteps?

Baku/13.06.22/Turan:  On June 9, at a  meeting with young entrepreneurs at an exhibition at VDNKh (Achievements of National Economy) dedicated to the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter I,  the  Russian President Vladimir Putin  said that his mission is the return of Russian lands  and compared himself with Tsar Peter.

“Peter the Great waged the Northern War for 21 years: it would seem that he fought with Sweden there, he rejected something. He did not reject anything, he returned! All the Ladoga region, where Petersburg was founded under him, - when he founded a new capital, not a single European country recognized this territory as Russia, everyone recognized it as Sweden. And there, from time immemorial, along with the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Slavs lived, and this territory was under the control of the Russian state,” Putin said.

“He returned and strengthened - that's what he did. Apparently, it also fell to our lot to return and strengthen, and if we proceed from the fact that these basic values ​​form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in meeting the challenges that we face,” he added.

Is Putin really following in Peter's way? Will the steps he has taken succeed or will it be a disaster for Russia?

Conflictologist Arif Yunus answers these and other questions in the “Difficult Question” program.

According to him, if these thoughts were expressed by an ordinary citizen, he would be considered insane.

“Such rhetoric  in  the 21st century by a sane person, is unthinkable. However, the problem is that this is not an ordinary citizen, but the head of a huge country with nuclear weapons,” Yunus said.

He recalled that before, many analysts and politicians said that Putin's goal is to restore the Soviet Union.

“True, representatives of Putin’s entourage reassured, saying that this was said only for the red word and the fact that Putin voices such ideas does not mean at all that he intends to restore the Soviet Union. Allegedly, in Russia they respect the independence of the former Soviet republics, etc., etc. They have been repeating this for years,” the conflictologist noted.

According to Yunus, residents of the former post-Soviet space and in Europe treated Putin's verbal escapades with irony. Many decided that he was not of sound mind - "What to take from a lunatic?".

However, his current performance in Europe was taken seriously.

“They believe that Putin set out to restore not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire. Those. in addition to the post-Soviet republics, we are talking about the annexation of Poland, Finland, Sweden ...

Do not forget that when Putin came up with this expansionist program, the President of Finland, who was going to visit the Aland Islands, where he was going to meet with the King of Sweden, immediately canceled his visit. The King of Sweden also canceled this meeting. Those. Europe took Putin's words as a message to everyone - the former Soviet republics and Poland and Finland that were previously part of the Russian Empire," Yunus stressed.

The conflictologist is convinced that Russia's military expansion will not be limited to Ukraine. "Ukraine is just the first stage of Putin's plan," he says. –0--