LONDON — President Vladimir Putin compared himself with Peter the Great and said he shared the 18th century tsar’s goal to return “Russian lands to a greater empire.”
After visiting an exhibition celebrating the 350th anniversary Peter’s birth, Putin made a parallel to his invasion of Ukraine.
“Peter The Great waged the Great Northern War over 21 years. According to Reuters translation, it would appear that he was at War with Sweden. He took something from them.” “He didn’t take anything from them; he returned [them].”
He said, in reference to the invasion of Ukraine: “Apparently it also fell upon us to return [Russia’s] land and strengthen [the nation].” We will succeed in solving our problems if we remember that these fundamental values are the foundation of our existence.
Peter the First (or Peter the Great) is credited for transforming Russia into an empire and major European power. He is also known for ending the dominance of the Swedish navy’s Baltic region fleet and expanding Russia’s borders through the seizing of Swedish land and other Baltic countries. St Petersburg was built on Swedish land that had been captured. It is also Putin’s hometown.
Russia’s invasion in Ukraine raised concerns that Putin was not only intent on claiming its former Soviet republic neighbor, but also posed a threat to other countries like Poland, Finland, and the Baltics.
Mykhailo Podolyak was an advisor to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He stated in a tweet, “Putin’s comments show his imperialistic ambitions” and that the invasion was an attempt at “bloody seizure”.
Russia is trying to justify its “special war” in Ukraine amid mounting evidence of civilian casualties since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th.
Some observers believe Putin’s remarks show that the invasion of Ukraine is motivated by historical ambitions and the desire to build a larger empire. Miguel Berger, German Ambassador to the U.K., wrote on Twitter that “tens to thousands must pay with their lives to fulfill the megalomaniac dreams for a renewed Russian Empire.”
Carl Bildt, an ex-prime minister of Sweden, was one of those who warned Putin that his mindset reflects a desire to cause years of bloodshed.
“That’s the way he sees his mission – to take back what was once claimed by Russia. He said that it was a recipe for many years of war.
Putin is a history buff and admitted to having learned from historical precedents how he formulates foreign policy.
Putin declared that Kyiv was the mother of Russian cities in March 2014. He said this to emphasize that Russia and Ukraine had historically been inseparable. “Ancient Rus, our common source, is the only way we can live together.”
A few days later, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Putin claimed that Russia and Ukraine were one nation in July 2021, seven months after the invasion of Ukraine.
Andrei Kolesnikov (a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) said that Putin likes strong, tough leaders.
He said, “He wants to appear as a Peter-style modernizer even though he will be remembered in history more as a cruel ruler like Ivan The Terrible.”
Simon Sebag Montefiore is a well-known popular historian who wrote extensively about the Romanov dynasty in Russia that ruled for 300 years. He said that successive Russian leaders sought to imitate Peter.
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He wrote that every Romanov tsar and every Soviet leader, including here Putin, dreamed of becoming the first emperor to achieve [a] stateman, general conqueror [and] builder [and] reformer.”
