For many years, it has been a standard trope of liberal writing on hostilities between nations and ethnicities that these are not rooted either in inherited conflicts or real contemporary clashes of interest but are rather “constructed” by wicked political elites to serve their own political and economic ends.
This is an argument that has often been used to “explain” the foreign policy stances of the Putin administration, with the implication that these policies are not merely not in Russia’s real interests, they are not even intended to be, and that President Putin and his followers are acting purely in their own selfish and cynical interest by diverting the attention of the Russian people away from demands for domestic reform. This in turn provides yet another excuse for Western governments to take action against Russia while ignoring Russian wishes.
Read the full article on the website of Valdai Discussion Club.