LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambitions and his ruthless style of achieving them in his invasion of Ukraine can be traced at least in part to a handful of conservative Russian thinkers who, like him, came to prominence in a post-Soviet nation struggling to find its identity, and who have helped mold his ideology.
"You cannot get inside Putin's head at this very moment," said Marlene Laruelle, a historian of Russia and political scientist at George Washington University. But "there is a history of advisers, formal and informal, and thinking that has surrounded him over the years that you can look at to understand his perspective."
In justifying the war he launched in late February by blaming a decadent West for attempting to chip away at Russian identity, borders and security, Putin echoed key ideas of Eurasianism, a 20th-century political theory that modern-day followers describe as saying Russia is neither part of Europe nor Asia and is the enemy of the U.S.-led "Atlantic" world.
