Vladimir Putin’s justifications for his country’s invasion of Ukraine – that is, legitimate anxiety at the erosion of Russia’s geopolitical security triggered by Nato’s expansion into eastern Europe – are looking increasingly wayward as the war enters its sixth month.
So it’s worth examining other factors that might be motivating the Russian president and his advisors. One of these was neatly summed up by historian Serhii Plokhy in his 2018 study, Lost Kingdom, A History of Russian Nationalism from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin:
