With the recent build-up of Russian forces around Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russians and Ukrainians occupy “the same historical and spiritual space” has taken on an ominous tone. In the eyes of large swaths of the Russian political elite, these countries share the same roots, some even dispute the legitimacy of an independent Ukrainian state.
But the two most influential republics of the former Soviet Union have taken different paths since 1991. Whereas the Russian elite has struggled to accept its loss of oversight in the “near abroad”, Ukrainians have largely embraced their country’s independence.
Over the past decade, Russia and Ukraine have also drifted apart in how they view their shared past. In 2015, for example, Kyiv passed legislation equating communism with Nazism, whereas in 2014, Russia adopted a law criminalising criticism of the Soviet Union’s actions in the second world war. Today, politicians on both sides continue to dwell on the past, hurling epithets such as “Banderite” and “Putler” at one another as they couch present-day politics in historical analogies.
