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Russia's war against Ukraine is not about taking land.
It's about giving substance to the stories told for 25 years by President Vladimir Putin.
The tales' primary purpose is to sustain his Power Vertical of elite corruption and wealth.
War is the inescapable result. It backs up his stories, rallies and distracts the nation while his cronies rob the common wealth.
Putin rooted his tales in a past of World War Two glory and 1990s chaos. He told his people to look back to understand the present and future. Storylines developed to head off opposition at home and the wars expanded: Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea, Syria, Ukraine.
Putin's rule hardened and the West grew as Russia's enemy.
Any win in Ukraine now will be spun as total victory. The Russian leader's stories will prove true: of dismantling the post-war European order; about redundant liberal democracy; of Fortress Russia defending its church and conservative values; of beating back adversaries bent on thwarting Russia pulling itself up off its knees after Soviet collapse. It will establish, as Putin said, "the weak get beaten." It will be authoritarianism's gain over the rule-based order and compassion-based norms. It will vindicate war crimes. Putin's rule and the endless need for enemies will endure. War must be ceaseless. It oils his regime.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in Putin's prison system in 2024. He wrote in the wake of Putin's assault on Ukraine: "I am against his war. I consider it immoral, fratricidal and criminal. It has been started by the Kremlin gang to make it easier for them to steal."
Putin's Stories: How Russia Was Sold Into Ceaseless War explains how and why we reached this point. It shows that Russia's defeat is the only outcome with any hope of a 'durable' peace in Europe. Putin allowed Russia to regress into Leonid Brezhnev's stagnation and on to Stalin-era repression. He kept the nation dependant on natural resources. The economy never diversified and is now stuck on a war footing. If that is lost, Putin may be confronted by a palace coup or the popular uprising he always feared more than NATO. War brought his people little 'miracles', successes that bore him out. Until the current war in Ukraine. And now Putin is trapped in a perpetual motion machine of fable and destruction. It could be his undoing.
This book explains what all this means for us now.
