Russia Cannot Become Normal Until It Stops Being an Empire

Russia will only become an ordinary nation-state once it loses the imperial reflex that has outlived the Soviet Union, argues Rutgers historian Alexander J. Motyl in a sharp essay for Foreign Policy. He traces a mindset inherited from both Tsarist and Soviet Russia that treats domination over neighbours as a birthright, and argues Vladimir Putin has fused it with an openly fascist strain of imperialism. Ukrainians have long observed, he notes, that “scratch a Russian liberal and find a Russian imperialist,” a warning against assuming opposition to Putin equals rejection of empire. Motyl’s core claim is counterintuitive: Russia becomes normal only by losing, not by winning or merely being contained. A defeat in Ukraine, a collapse of the Putin system, and a further loosening of Moscow’s grip on its remaining periphery would, in his telling, be the fastest route to a smaller, less dangerous, and ultimately healthier Russian state. Absent that defeat, he warns, a weakened but unbroken Russia will keep reaching for re-imperialisation, with the same results as before: failure, death and destruction. The essay lands as Warsaw and other capitals debate exactly how much further Russian power must shrink before any settlement can be called a win.