Podcast “Ukraine – the situation”
Military expert Masala: Putin presents himself as “defender of the anti-colonial world”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the 19th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club
© Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/DPA
According to military expert Carlo Masala, Russia is increasingly trying to portray the Ukraine war as part of a global conflict with the West. According to Masala, President Putin presents himself as a “pioneer of an anti-colonial movement”.
According to military expert Carlo Masala, the Russian leadership is increasingly trying to portray the war in Ukraine as part of a global conflict with the West. Masala says im star-Podcast “Ukraine – the situation”, President Vladimir Putin presents himself as a “pioneer of an anti-colonial movement”. “It’s a conflict on two levels,” explains the politics professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich. On the one hand it is about Ukraine, but the conflict has “the potential to become the culmination and turning point” of a larger struggle – namely between the USA and the West on the one hand and China and Russia on the other. “The further goal is of course to change the structure of the international system,” says Masala.
Ukraine war: West’s mistakes take revenge
With his renewed allegations against the West’s alleged striving for dominance, Putin is aiming at the states of the South, whose support he wants to gain. It helps him that the West made mistakes. “We’ve worked very hard with double standards over the past few decades,” says Masala. He cites the 2003 Iraq war as an example. The attempt “to spread liberal ideas worldwide, even by force, has meant that we are dealing with counter-reactions”. Many states would wait and see how the dispute develops instead of taking sides.
Masala makes it clear again that despite all the dangers, he doesn’t expect the Ukraine war to get completely out of control. “There are approaches to communication,” he says, referring to the talks between the defense ministers of Russia and the United States. They are designed to “not immediately get into a complete escalation” in the event of possible misjudgments.
US satellites as possible war targets
However, Masala sees the risk that the USA and Russia will come even closer to a direct confrontation than before. American satellites that deliver data to the Ukrainians could be attacked. “These are legitimate targets based on Russian logic,” he says in response to threats from the Moscow leadership. “They definitely have a meaning in terms of enlightenment.” The Russians could also target US billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink system, which is used to provide Internet access in Ukraine. “I think it’s entirely possible that the Starlink system will be the target of attacks,” says Masala. However, he would expect that Starlink would not be attacked physically, but rather that the Russians would attempt to hack it out.