Center on National Security
May 13, 2021
Interview with Nicolai Petro

Vital Interests: Nicolai, thanks for joining us today on the Vital Interests forum. We have had several conversations on this forum dealing with Russia but it would be good to delve into this topic some more. You’re a perfect person to talk to having just come back from Europe where you spent time in Ukraine and Italy and can provide us with fresh insights. 

Recently President Putin gave his annual state of the nation address to the Russian Federal Assembly. He talked about the spiritual and moral values which sustain Russia and distinguish it from other nations which were forgetting about these essential values. This struck me as an interesting statement by Putin and worth exploring. From your informed perspective what are the spiritual and moral values that Putin is referring to that define Russian society today?

Nicolai Petro: Since 2013 Putin has focused particular attention on Russia’s heritage as a multicultural nation. In his September 19, 2013 speech at the Valdai Conference he emphasized multiculturalism at a time when his counterparts in the West were disavowing it. He later made a distinction between multiculturalism and pluriculturalism, defining Russia as a pluricultural society.

The distinction as I understand it is that multiculturalism encourages individual cultural self identification, whereas pluriculturalism emphasizes the need for cultural collectives to retain their cultural identities within the larger community. To make the distinction clear to your readers, the United States would be an example of a multicultural society. The European Union, by contrast would be an example of the pluricultural society because it says, “Look you Catalonians, you Corsicans, you Welsh – you have an identity that should be encouraged and recognized as a positive social value even though you don’t have statehood.” The distinction is apparent even in their respective mottos: “Out of Many, One” for the United States, and “United in Diversity” for the European Union.

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ACURA Viewpoint:
The West Needs to Rethink Its Approach In Ukraine

ACURA: American Committee for US-Russia Accord
May 5, 2021
By Nicolai Petro

The West’s approach to achieving peace in Ukraine has focused on Russia’s role … while ignoring domestic factors because they are consistent with the broader US policy of portraying Russia as a destabilizing actor in world affairs.

It is also in keeping with the dominant approach to international relations—Realism—which sees domestic actors as irrelevant when considering a nation’s foreign policy. This view is a myth, left over from the 1950s, the Golden Era of U.S. foreign policy when senator Arthur Vandenberg, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, famously put it “politics stops at the water’s edge.” It is telling that Joe Biden, who remembers that era, called on Ukrainian political leaders in his speech to the parliament on December 9, 2015, to put aside their “parochial differences” and think about the common good.

But this has not occurred, and we have not stopped to ask why.

It is because we insist on seeing Ukraine through the prism of Russia, rather than through the complex realities of Ukraine. This has prevented the emergence of any policy toward the country, other than to see it separated from Russia. It has even unwittingly led the U.S. to support Western Ukrainian demands for an ethnically and culturally  monolithic Ukraine, against Eastern and Southern Ukrainian demands for cultural pluralism.

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Dear CCI Friends,

A very important Webinar on NATO Expansion is being offered by the Quincy Institute on May 11. Check it out below to see what time it will be offered in your time zone.

Ambassador Jack Matlock will lead off with others following. Anatol Lieven, a Russian and international specialist will moderate the event. It should be terrific!

Let’s plan to interact via email or Zoom following this event to determine a course of action. More to follow.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Reminder to all CCI Followers,

From World BEYOND War and Center for Citizen Initiatives:

An Online Conversation on Peace, Russia, and the United States with Vladimir Kozin and Ray McGovern

Start: Thursday, May 06, 2021 • 1:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)
End: Thursday, May 06, 2021 • 2:30 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

Register here.

Once you have registered you will be given the Zoom link to enter the discussion.

Pressures for war are building. What can people do for peace between Russia and the United States? Join in this conversation, in English, between Vladimir Kozin and Ray McGovern.

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CCI Friends,

I was shocked on April 13 when ominous U.S. “Defender-Europe 2021 ‘War Games’” were announced on Ukraine/Russia’s border … using 30,000 NATO troops, miles of new tanks and battleships headed for the Black Sea. Stunned also, Russians quickly fielded a similar number of soldiers, miles of trucks near their borders and ordered the ships out of their waters!

The U.S. side, hyped the news channels about Russians mounting for war (while totally ignoring the U.S. Defender-Europe 21 War Games). For those who don’t follow news carefully, Russia looked like the big bad bear … there was no mention of the U.S. War Games (which preemped Russia’s response)!

We Americans believe in fair play … don’t we? We teach our children to treat others kindly on their playgrounds … don’t we? We expect fair play on basketball courts and golf greens … don’t we? It’s a matter of personal pride … isn’t it? Only unsavory characters do otherwise … right?

Then why do we tolerate our government, president and military to stoop to such dangerous antics? They provoked fear in another heavily nuclearized nation, spent enormous amounts of our tax dollars for troops, tanks, weapons and battleships,  … and then blamed Russia for having troops on their own borders?

Below Natylie Baldwin points out other dangerous idiocies. Please read and determine if this is acceptable behavior for people in U.S. leadership.

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