What to Do About Russia

knowledge@wharton, accessed 7/20/2018

Since it is in the news a lot, I thought I would do a post on Russia and the current state of Russia and the rest of the world. It is a vast, resource rich land that is going to benefit significantly from the changing climate. Russia wields a world-class military, and the Russian people are hardy and stubborn with many places for hiding and a lot of diverse home territory to play with. I would like the Russians to ease into a more peaceable stance, with the understanding that there is no way they could attack and hold us, and there is no way for us to attack and hold them. There is room for the bear and the eagle in this world, even if they have two very different ways of working with the world.

Full disclosure, I have taken classes on Russian history, society, politics, and culture while in my undergraduate studies. While I am not an official expert on the Rus (there are many others who know more than me), I will say that I have a greater than average grasp of one of our favorite opponents in geo-political disputes and issues. This will not be long (a story about Russia could go on for ages).

I think the first thing Americans need to recognize, is that Russia is more than Putin. It's a shame that the same country that gave us Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev, and others is embracing a small, brutish, and savage version of themselves because of some teetotaler. It is also significant that this complement is coming from me, someone who is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Russia is a country defined by religious identity. In spite of my family living with the Slavs through times of peace, war, famine, and disease (with the added burden of whatever the Slavs dumped on us for maintaining our past and beliefs), they have rarely, and otherwise begrudgingly, accepted non-Orthodox Christians in their lands.

I would be the first to re-embrace with Mother Rus from America, in spite of what her President has done to us, and their people have done to my family. I think they are a people who have lived through some of the worst conditions on Earth for humans to inhabit, and survived. I just wish we both could learn to live with each other, and come to non-zero sum solutions to our shared international, and individual domestic problems. This is a time for learning about other people on their own terms, and recognizing the humanity that is common to us all, while respectfully honoring the little things that make us each unique as a people and people. I can live with Russia, if they can live with US. Come, let's have some vodka, and hash things out.