you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]kingsmegLiberté, égalité, fraternité 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I read this piece and I laughed at this:

With this objective in mind, I continue to believe that Putin’s decision to deliver a 30 minute history lecture at the opening by way of answer to Carlson’s question of why Russia invaded was a bad decision. It was bad for several reasons. One is that it was boring for the general public. Yes, the interview attracted 140 million ‘hits’ on Carlson’s website, but we are not told how long those viewers stayed tuned. Secondly, Putin is not a professional historian and anything he said would be pulled to pieces by academics in the States, not just by the usual journalistic commentators. Thirdly, the history going back to the 9th century had nothing to do with the decision to invade Ukraine, which was prompted and justified internally in the Kremlin by reasons of Realpolitik, not by what is called Romantic Nationalism.

So mr. Doctorow knows not only who Putin's audience was, but what his purpose was in reaching them and how he should have achieved his goals?