"Vladimir Putin and his enablers have made one thing very clear: This war is not only about Ukraine.
"Vladimir Putin and his enablers have made one thing very clear: This war is not only about Ukraine. They consider their war against Ukraine to be part of a larger crusade, a crusade against liberal democracy," German Chancellor Olaf ScholzIn that sense, Smolkin says, Putin's understanding of modern Western culture is not all that different fromwho see secular society as an existential threat.
“Wars tend to get more ‘holy’ as they go on, and leaders have to justify the high costs,” says Ben Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “They do not want to see us as a free society, but a mass of soulless slaves,” Putin said during last month’s annexation speech, depicting Russia as a bulwark against Western materialism and spiritual impoverishment.