Yuliya Yurchenko1; Owen Worth2; 1 University of Greenwich , UK; 2 University of Limerick, Ireland
Discussion
Taking Russo-Ukrainian war as a starting point, we deploy Gramscian political economy to show the deficiencies of extant scholarship on both and the region. We argue that Russia’s perceived “apparent irrationalities”, Putinversteher-ing, proliferation of poor neorealism and Marxist takes are rooted in a deep ahistoric, decontextualised, and categorically problematic representation of Russia. While western imperialisms enjoyed much-deserved scrutiny, Russian geopolitics of self-victimisation thrived in western academia’s Russia fetishism, glorifying and vilifying alike, thus clouding critical scrutiny and adequate positioning of its object in global (geo)politics. Post-1991 regional hegemonic contestations and the current era of polycrisis created an environment where the future forms of world order are (re)shaped. Conditions being imperfect, Putin tried to force a 19thc style of multipolarity with invasions rooted in legacy of internal colonisation of Eurasia. Russia’s failure to modernise or keep regional geopolitical superiority after break down of USSR has led to this move.
