The Russian Tragedy: an invitation to reflection

With the aggression against Ukraine, Russia does not believe it has any moral obligations towards
the international order that it helped create in 1945. This recalls me back to the heroines of
Pushkin’s poem Gypsies’s Zemfira and Mariula. In fact, they had moral obligations towards men
and children, blindly following their desires, obeying their passions.
Putin has decided to manifest himself in Europe as a hero of the Greek tragedy, fighting against the
excessive power of fate and honoring human freedom, however hiding his interior dissent namely
the looming Chinese threat in Siberia. In this respect, foreign economic contracts for the export of
illegally harvested timber to China are nothing new, as are Chinese illegal activities in Siberia.
In the distorted Asian vision, numerous experts, politicians, entrepreneurs, including businessman
Oleg Deripaska, have repeatedly proposed moving the capital from Moscow beyond the Urals;
though Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has made clear that a move East would exile federal
officials thousands of miles from the European part of Russia, where most Russians live.
The most immediate and obvious deduction is that Russian’s destiny is European. But if we wanted
to consider the declarations of intent of the Russian authorities, I would ask Mr. Putin if he is really
convinced that a strategic partnership with China is truly a solution to his problems.
Pushkin deliberately created the image of mother Zemfira, who left her daughter for a new love. In
a civilized society, this act would have caused general censure, but Zemfira like Putin does not
condemn her mother and he does the same.
While it is true that gypsies do not consider betrayal a sin, because no one is able to maintain love, I
would remember that Putin’s position is that of Aleko who would have lately stated “You only want
freedom for yourself”, accusing Zemfira’s father the killer.
Putin like Pushkin would have depicted the expulsion of a romantic hero not only from civil society,
but also from the world of freedom. Aleko does not change the traditions I doubt that Putin would
have contradicted him….