An Introduction

So, my first blog. I called this reflections in imitation of the great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his tome on Stocism, Meditations. A thinker and a fighter, Marcus Aurelius encompassed all that was grand and good, all that a Roman Emperor was supposed to be. So much so that the great historian Edward Gibbon called him one of the Five Good Emperors. You the dear reader may ask why I am talking about this long dead man for so long? Good question, I respond.

Because Aurelius recorded his thoughts on life for prosperity. Meditations is a masterful work, still read in the 21st Century. While I do not arrogantly hope that these thoughts will be read by someone 1900 years from now (roughly the same distance that separates us from Aurelius), I do hope that I will be able to some enlightenment, amusement and so forth to my readers, whoever they are, in this day and age.

So, what is it that I am going to talk about in this, the first post on this blog? Russia, I think, is a good place to start.

Firstly, Russia. Russia under Putin had, frankly, been acting like an authoritarian, imperialist douche of a country. Invading Ukraine, suppressing LGBT right, having fur behatted Cossacks whip dissidents on the street like it's the 1910s not the 2010s, the list goes on. This will be an attempt to explain Russia's actions in a historical context. Please do not mistake, I am in no way condoning Russia's actions, since they are so far opposed to my own (liberal) politics, but understanding them to try and prevent repeats of them.

Russia has always had an interesting relationship with the outside world. On the one hand, Europe, and Western Europe in particular, is seen as advanced, scientific, meritocratic, a role model. Peter the Great took this stance, and his reforms were inspired by the latest Western European advances, in particular the then Kingdom of England, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden, the latter at the height of its power. But the way Peter enacted his reforms speak to another part of Russia's relationship with Europe and the world in general. Peter pushed his reforms through with a ruthlessness Ivan the Terrible would applaud, set up no representative bodies along the lines of the English Parliament or the Swedish Estates and in general expanded Imperial power at a time when the English Bill of Rights set that country onto the path of parliamentary democracy. It is instructive that Peter set up a science academy when most of the population was unable to read and write, and worked thousands to death building his new shining city, St. Petersburg.

What this means for the present day is that Europe is both regarded as a role model and as a danger, dangerous to a country for whom a key national myth is that it is the Third Rome, the last, true, civilised, Christian country. Putin is playing on the role of Europe as a danger. Ideas like gay rights, democratic governance, liberty and so forth are regarded as dangerous by a Russian population who first introduction to the ideas of the French Revolution came with Napoleons Army, and who first exposure to the product of industry was the slaughter of the First World War. An interesting anecdote from that conflict is that a Russian noblemen was surprised to see a German private smoking a cigar, and marvelled at the wealth of a society that could give even the lowest members such things.

In playing on these fears, Putin maintains his power. And it means for us in Western Europe is that trying to persuade Putin by logic, reason and the carrot won't really work. He has no reason to want to liberalise, to stop being Vlad the Invader. His power rests on an adversarial relationship with the world, and on creating and targeting made up enemies within, which in the case of modern Russia is LGBT people.

And for this blogger at least, what the EU needs to do in response to Russian aggression at home and abroad is a two fold program of moderate increases in military spending and energy independence. Russia has a GDP the size of Italy's, it cannot afford a spending war with Europe, even if it's simply the Luftwaffe getting two more squadrons of Eurofighters or the Royal Norwegian Navy having an extra couple of submarines. What Putin hopes is that Russian supplying Europe with gas will enable him to hold the EU to ransom. Which is why energy independence, achieved through increased spending and development and use of both nuclear and renewable sources is such a key and fundamental issue. We can't change Putin's mind but we can at least stop him sending troops in places where he pretends Russians are in need of his "protection".

Well, that's it for today, hope you enjoyed it. Charlie Cussans, wishing you goodnight, and goodluck.