See You Next Thursday

A brutal perichoresis on singularly Russian terms

It is astonishing that anybody believes Moscow or enters into dialogue with them in good faith, knowing that Russian officials have violently detached language from meaning, upended the meaning of rhetoric (in its classical understanding), and use discourse only as a coercive tool.

Nevertheless we are here. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bluff by offering to fly to Turkey this coming Thursday. It is unclear right now whether Putin will accept.

I would be very surprised if Putin does go out to Istanbul. What is there to discuss?

Putin insists on tackling the ‘root causes’ for the war: this, as I have written, points to his fear of a strong Europe whose security systems (and politics, and economies, and societies, and cultures) can operate free from Moscow’s influence.

Kyiv wants an immediate ceasefire. Zelenskyy has slowly pushed his formal position from using military force to push out the invading Russians, to relying on diplomacy. However, as I noted above, Russia uses diplomatic discourse not in its tradition sense, but as a weapon to force its interlocutors into a subjugated relationship. So there is little purpose even talking to them.

I was never — astonishingly, I know — a diplomat, although have supported many diplomatic staff, including directly Foreign Secretaries, in their work. They are minded to be more, well, diplomatic in their approach to Moscow. At this moment in time, however, I am deeply pessimistic about the prospects for progress or peace. Moscow’s end aim, imprisoned in its own ideas, is to infiltrate all aspects of European security. This is intrinsically incompatible with Europe’s need to strengthen its security architecture. All Russians are trapped in this ideocracy — and Putin, even if he wanted, has gone so far down this war that he cannot stop it.

Trump is wielding his own pressure on both leaders to show up. It does seem that he might have some leverage over Moscow, though Trump’s insistence on a peace now again is incompatible with the Kremlin’s aim.

Both Zelenskyy and Putin are engaged in a weird competition of compliance, both trying to outdo each other in demonstrating to Trump their supposed efforts at peace. Meanwhile, the Russians — they will be careful in how this aspect of their messaging is framed to the Americans — continue their long strategy of wearing down Ukrainian civilians through military and informational attacks.

They rejoice in their assault on Ukraine, boasting about their supposed endless capabilities and superiority. This callousness — even while Moscow insists to the White House that the Ukrainians are responsible for the violence — seems lost on the Americans.

This aspect of Russian messaging — the way it uses the information space to intimidate, and not, as some old-school commentators on ‘Russian disinformation’ would have you believe, to confuse or misdirect — requires much more examination, having much in common with terrorist messaging than political or media discourse.

For now, just note Russian messaging yesterday morning, a state-owned media resource targeting Ukrainians (free and enslaved). Note how they revel in their wanton destruction, their aim seeming to frighten and subdue Ukrainians.

Image: Screenshot from Ukraina.ru Telegram channel on 12 May, repeated posts gleefully announcing explosions and flights of Russian drones over Ukraine. Do the Americans get such messaging and read them in the correct context?

Let’s see what Thursday brings. Beware Russians bearing gifts.

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