The art of success in politics, economics and even war is to tell compelling stories. Data, formal speeches, slide decks, clever debating points and tools of close analysis all have their place – but the trump card in persuasion and winning hearts and minds is a good story. To win is to have owned the best narrative. Get the message wrong and it turns into an unbelievable, losing fairytale.
Thus, one of the reasons the Russians will ultimately fail in Ukraine is as much their weak story as any military frailties, while the Ukrainian account in response is so strong. Few, even inside Russia, believe Vladimir Putin’s story that Ukraine was always and immutably Russian, justifying such death and destruction to reassimilate it into its “natural” motherland.
