Why Putin says Russia could ‘cease to exist’ if it loses
Putin's officials have said they are fighting Nazis and responding to NATO aggression, and that the U.S. sought Russia's "strategic defeat."
Since the spring of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have repeatedly asserted that Russia may cease to exist if Ukraine were to prevail in the ongoing conflict. This claim has often appeared puzzling and absurd, given the immense scale and scale of the ongoing struggle. Despite its apparent implausibility, such a belief may help illuminate the Kremlin's escalating attacks on Ukraine, its expansion of hybrid warfare in Europe, and its risky decision to transfer significant budget allocations from non-defense to military spending, potentially leading to domestic discontent.
Putin reiterated this notion during his annual address to the Valdai Club conference on foreign policy and Russian analysts earlier this month. Referring to a 2022 statement from then-NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith, who suggested that the U.S. aimed for Russia's "strategic defeat," Putin contended that this posed a direct threat to his nation's "very right to exist."
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