Well, that couldn’t have been more timely! If you don’t know, Augustana University brings in a top-notch speaker once a year to headline the Boe Forum. They cast the net pretty far and wide – conservatives, liberals, science guys…check out the star-studded list here.
Up last night was Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Dr. Michael A. McFaul, who was dispatched overseas during the Obama administration to try to keep things kosher with the prickly Eurasian powerhouse.
This guy mixes some impressive chops – speaks Russian, teaches at Stanford, etc – with a folksy Montana-born appreciation for all of us in fly-over country. As a guy who spent years behind-the-scenes and in-the-room with the most powerful men on earth, he had more than a few good stories to tell.
For obvious reasons he spent the night talking about the Ukraine crises. A few take-aways:
First, don’t blame the current war on conniving NATO expansion! NATO’s embrace of Eastern Europe during the 90’s was at the behest of the new members themselves, not a power play from Washington. They were looking for protection, much as Sweden and Finland are now. They knew what they were up against – the Russian bear had changed it’s name, but not it’s character.
Secondly, he explained why Ukraine was so important to Putin. Vlad believes that Russians are fundamentally different from the West, that they value order and tradition and the state over classical liberal concepts like Democracy and Capitalism. Putin also believes that Ukrainians – people who share a long and tangled history with their neighbor to the north – are, at root, of the same tribe. They just got lost along the way. Therefore, the idea that Russia’s southern brothers would turn towards the “decadent” West is an intolerable contradiction, one that must be fixed with force.
Good food for thought. Anyway…check out the Boe Forum next year. Did we mention that tickets are free? See you there, in 2023!