By Eric Vandenbroeck
and co-workers
Putin's Insistence
A member of the
Ukrainian State Border Guard stands to watch at the border crossing between
Ukraine and Belarus on February 13, 2022
Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine was meant to be his crowning achievement, demonstrating
how far Russia had come since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991.
Annexing Ukraine was supposed to be the first step in reconstructing a Russian
empire. Putin intended to expose the United States as a paper tiger outside
Western Europe and demonstrate that Russia and China were destined for
leadership in a new, multipolar international order.
As Russian President
Vladimir Putin doubles down on his war in Ukraine, the strength of his administration hangs in the balance. Some observers have predicted that the Russian
president could be overthrown; others even hope for a breakup of the country. This
raises the question: Could Russia
splinter?
It hasn’t turned out
that way. Kyiv held firm, and the Ukrainian military has been transformed into
a juggernaut, thanks partly to a close partnership with the United States and
Western allies. The Russian army, in contrast, has demonstrated poor strategic
thinking and organization. The political system behind it has proved
unable to learn from its mistakes. With little prospect of dictating Putin’s
actions, the West must prepare for the next stage of Russia’s disastrous war of
choice.
War is inherently unpredictable.
Indeed, the course of the conflict has invalidated widespread early
prognostications that Ukraine would quickly fall; a reversal of fortunes
is impossible to discount. It nevertheless appears that Russia is headed
for defeat. Less certain is what form this defeat will take. Three basic
scenarios exist; each would have different ramifications for policymakers in
the West and Ukraine.
The first and least
likely scenario is that Russia will agree to its defeat by accepting
a negotiated settlement on Ukraine’s terms. A great deal would have
to change for this scenario to materialize because any semblance of
diplomatic dialogue among Russia, Ukraine, and the West has vanished. The
scope of Russian aggression and the extent of Russian war crimes would make it
difficult for Ukraine to accept any diplomatic settlement that amounted to
anything less than a total Russian surrender.
That said, under
Putin or a successor, a Russian government could try to retain Crimea and sue
for peace elsewhere. To save face domestically, the Kremlin could claim it is
preparing for the long game in Ukraine, leaving the possibility of
additional military incursions open. It could blame its underperformance on
NATO, arguing that the alliance’s weapon deliveries, not Ukraine’s
strength, impeded a Russian victory. For this approach to pass muster
within the regime, hard-liners—possibly including Putin himself—would have
to be marginalized. This would be difficult but not impossible. Still,
under Putin, this outcome is highly improbable, given that his approach to the
war has been maximalist.
A second scenario for
Russian defeat would involve failure amid escalation. The Kremlin would
nihilistically seek to prolong the war in Ukraine while launching a campaign of
unacknowledged acts of sabotage in countries that support Kyiv and in Ukraine
itself. In the worst case, Russia could opt for a nuclear attack on
Ukraine. The war would then edge toward a direct military confrontation between
NATO and Russia. Russia would transform from a revisionist state into a
rogue one, a transition already underway that would harden the West’s
conviction that Russia poses a unique and unacceptable threat. Crossing
the nuclear threshold could lead to NATO’s conventional involvement in the
war, accelerating Russia’s defeat.
A destroyed Russian howitzer in Kharkiv region,
Ukraine, September 2022
The final scenario
for the war’s end would be defeat through regime collapse, with the decisive
battles taking place not in Ukraine but in the halls of the Kremlin or the
streets of Moscow. Putin has concentrated power rigidly in his own hands, and
his obstinacy in pursuing a losing war has placed his regime on shaky
ground. Russians will continue marching behind their inept tsar only to a
certain point. Although Putin has brought political stability to Russia—a
prized state of affairs given the ruptures of the post-Soviet years—his
citizens could turn on him if the war leads to general privation. The collapse
of his regime could mean an immediate end to the war, which
Russia would be unable to wage amid the ensuing domestic chaos. A coup d’état
followed by civil war would echo what happened after the Bolshevik
takeover in 1917, precipitating Russia’s withdrawal from World War I.
No matter how it
comes about, a Russian defeat would be welcomed. It would free Ukraine from the
terrors it has suffered since the invasion. It would reinforce the principle
that an attack on another country cannot go unpunished. It might open up new
opportunities for Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and the West to finish ordering
Europe in its image. For Belarus, a path could emerge toward the end of
dictatorship and free and fair elections. Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine could
strive together for eventual integration into the European Union and possibly
NATO, following the model of Central and Eastern European governments after the
fall of the Soviet Union.
Though Russia’s
defeat would have many benefits, the United States and Europe should prepare
for the regional and global disorder it would produce. Since 2008, Russia has
been a revisionist power. It has redrawn borders, annexed territory, meddled in
elections, inserted itself into various African conflicts, and altered the
geopolitical dynamic of the Middle East by propping up Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad. If Russia pursued radical escalation or splintered into chaos instead
of accepting a defeat through negotiation, the repercussions would be felt in
Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The disorder could take the form of
separatism and renewed conflicts in and around Russia, the world’s largest
country in landmass. The transformation of Russia into a failed state riven by
civil war would revive questions that Western policymakers had to grapple with
in 1991: for example, who would gain control of Russia’s nuclear weapons? A
disorderly Russian defeat would leave a dangerous
hole in the international system.
Can’t Talk Your Way Out
Trying to sell Putin
on defeat through negotiation is problematic. (It would be much likelier under
a successor.) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would
demand that Moscow abandon its claim on the nominally Russian-controlled
territories in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. Putin has already
celebrated the annexation of these areas with pomp and circumstance. It is
doubtful he would do an about-face after this patriotic display despite Russia’s
tenuous hold on this territory. Any Russian leader, whether Putin or
someone else, would resist relinquishing Crimea, the part of Ukraine that
Russia annexed in 2014.
Conditions on the
ground in Russia would have to be conducive to compromise. New Russian
leadership would have to contend with a demoralized military and gamble on a
complacent public acceding to capitulation. Russians could eventually become
indifferent if the war grinds with no clear resolution. But fighting would
likely continue in parts of eastern Ukraine, and tensions between the two
countries would remain high.
Still, an agreement
with Ukraine could normalize relations with the West. That would be a powerful
incentive for a less militaristic Russian leader than Putin, and it
would appeal to many Russians. Western leaders could also be enticed to push
for negotiations to end the war. The hitch here is timing. In the first two
months after the February 2022 invasion, Russia had the chance to negotiate
with Zelensky and capitalize on its battlefield leverage. After Ukraine’s
successful counteroffensives, Kyiv has little reason to concede anything. Since
invading, Russia has upped the ante and escalated hostilities instead of
showing a willingness to compromise. A less intransigent leader than Putin
might lead Ukraine to consider negotiating. In the face of defeat, Putin could
resort to lashing out on the global stage. He has steadily expanded his framing
of the war, claiming that the West is waging a proxy battle against Russia to
destroy the country. His 2022 speeches were more megalomaniacal versions of his
address at the Munich Security Conference 15 years earlier, in which he
denounced American exceptionalism, arguing that the United States “has
overstepped its national borders in every way.”
Part bluster, part
nonsense, part trial balloon, Putin’s rhetoric is meant to mobilize Russians
emotionally. But there is also a tactical logic behind it. Although expanding
the war beyond Ukraine will not win Putin the territory he craves, it could
prevent Ukraine and the West from winning the conflict. His bellicose language
lays the groundwork for escalation and a twenty-first-century confrontation
with the West in which Russia would seek to exploit its asymmetric advantages
as a rogue or terrorist state.
Russia’s tools for
confrontation could include the use of chemical or biological weapons in or
outside Ukraine. Putin could destroy energy pipelines or seabed infrastructure
or mount cyberattacks on the West’s financial institutions. The use of tactical
nuclear weapons could be his last resort. In a speech on September 30, Putin
brought up Hiroshima and Nagasaki, offering jumbled interpretations of World
War II’s end phase. The analogy is imperfect, to put it mildly. If Russia
were to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, Kyiv would not
surrender.
For one thing,
Ukrainians know that Russian occupation would equal the extinction of their country,
which was not the case for Japan in 1945. In addition, Japan was losing the war
at the time. As of late 2022, Russia, the nuclear power, was losing.
The consequences of a
nuclear attack would be catastrophic, not just for the Ukrainian population.
Yet war would go on, and nuclear weapons would not do much to assist Russian
soldiers on the ground. Instead, Russia would face international outrage.
Brazil, China, and India have not condemned Russia’s invasion. Still, no
country truly supports Moscow in its horrific war, and none would support using
nuclear weapons. Chinese President Xi Jinping made this publicly
explicit in November. After he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he
issued a statement declaring that the leaders “jointly oppose the use or
threat of the use of nuclear weapons.” If Putin did defy this warning, he
would be an isolated pariah, punished economically and perhaps militarily by a
global coalition.
For Russia, then,
threatening to use nuclear weapons is of more excellent utility than actually
doing so. But Putin may still go down this path: after all, launching the
invasion was a spectacularly ill-conceived move, yet he did it. If he does opt
for breaking the nuclear taboo, NATO is unlikely to respond in kind to avoid
risking an apocalyptic nuclear exchange. The alliance, however, would, in
all likelihood, respond with conventional force to weaken Russia’s military and
to prevent further nuclear attacks, risking an escalatory spiral should Russia
launch conventional attacks on NATO in return.
Even if this scenario
could be avoided, a Russian defeat after nuclear use would still have dangerous
repercussions. It would create a world without the imperfect nuclear
equilibrium of the Cold War and the 30-year post– Cold War era. It would
encourage leaders around the globe to go nuclear because it would appear that
their safety could only be assured by acquiring atomic weapons and showing a
willingness to use them. A helter-skelter age of proliferation would ensue to
the immense detriment of global security.
Heavy Is The Head
At this point, the
Russian public has not risen to oppose the war. Russians may be skeptical of
Putin and may not trust his government. But they also do not want their sons,
fathers, and brothers in uniform to lose on the battlefield. Accustomed to
Russia’s great-power status through the centuries and isolated from the West,
most Russians would not want their country without any power and influence
in Europe. That would be a natural consequence of a Russian defeat in Ukraine.
Still, a long war
would commit Russians to a bleak future and probably spark a revolutionary
flame in the country. Russian casualties have been high, and as the
Ukrainian military grows in strength, it can inflict more significant
losses. The exodus of hundreds of thousands of young Russians, many highly
skilled, has been astonishing. Over time, war, sanctions, and brain drain will
take a massive toll—and Russians may eventually blame Putin, who began his
presidential career as a self-proclaimed modernizer. Most Russians were
insulated from his previous wars because they generally occurred far from the
home front and didn’t require a mass mobilization to replenish troops. That’s not the case with the
war in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier writing on a Howitzer shell in
Donetsk region, Ukraine, November 2022
Russia has a history
of regime change in the aftermath of unsuccessful wars. The Russo-Japanese War
of 1904–5 and World War I helped lead to the Bolshevik
Revolution. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 came two years after the end
of the Soviet military’s misadventure in Afghanistan. Revolutions have occurred
in Russia when the government has failed in its economic and political
objectives and has been unresponsive to crises. Generally, the coup de grâce has been puncturing the government’s underlying
ideology, such as the loss of legitimacy of Russia’s monarchy and tsardom amid
hunger, poverty, and a faltering war effort in 1917.
Putin is at risk in
all these categories. His management of the war has been awful, and the Russian
economy is contracting. In the face of these dismal trends, Putin has
doubled on his errors, insisting that the war is going “according to plan.”
Repression can solve some of his problems: the arrest and prosecution of
dissidents can quell protest at first. But Putin’s heavy hand also runs the
risk of spurring more dissatisfaction.
If Putin were
deposed, it is unclear who would succeed him. For the first time since coming
to power in 1999, Putin’s “power vertical”—a highly centralized government
hierarchy based on loyalty to the Russian president—has been losing a degree of
its verticality. Two possible contenders outside the traditional elite
structures are Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner
Group, a private military contractor that has furnished mercenaries for the war
on Ukraine, and Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic. They might
be tempted to chip away at the remains of Putin’s power vertical, encouraging
infighting in the regime to secure a position in the center of Russia’s new
power structure after Putin’s departure. They could also try to claim power
themselves. They have already put pressure on the leadership of the Russian
army and the Defense Ministry in response to failures in the war and attempted
to broaden their power bases with the backing of loyal paramilitary forces.
Other contenders could come from traditional elite circles, such as the
presidential administration, the cabinet, or military and security forces. To
suppress palace intrigue, Putin has surrounded himself with mediocrities for
the past 20 years. But his unsuccessful war threatens his hold on power. If he
truly believes his recent speeches, he may have convinced his subordinates that
he lives in a fantasy world.
Destruction in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, December
2022
The chances that a
pro-Western democrat would become Russia’s next president are vanishingly small. Far more
likely is an authoritarian leader in the Putinist
mold. A leader outside the power vertical could end the war and contemplate
better relations with the West. But a leader from within Putin’s Kremlin
would not have this option because he would be trailed by a public record of
supporting the war. The challenge of being a Putinist
after Putin would be formidable.
One challenge would
be the war, which would be no easier to manage for a successor, especially one
who shared Putin’s dream of restoring Russia’s great-power status. Another
challenge would be building legitimacy in a political system without any of its
traditional sources. Russia has no constitution to speak of and no
monarchy. Anyone who followed Putin would lack popular support and find it
challenging to personify the neo-Soviet, neo-imperial ideology that Putin has
come to embody.
In the worst case,
Putin’s fall could translate into civil war and
Russia’s disintegration. Power would be contested at the top, and
state control would fragment throughout the country. This period could echo the
Time of Troubles, or smuta, a 15-year
crisis of succession in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
marked by rebellion, lawlessness, and foreign invasion. Russians regard that
era as a period of humiliation to be avoided at all costs. Russia’s
twenty-first-century troubles could see the emergence of warlords from the
security services and violent separatists in the country’s economically
distressed regions, many of which are home to large numbers of ethnic
minorities. Although Russia in turmoil might not formally end the war in
Ukraine, it might simply be unable to conduct it. In this case, Ukraine would
have regained its peace and independence while Russia descended into anarchy.
Agent Of Chaos
Putin’s invasion
of Ukraine as a first step in refashioning a Russian empire has
had the opposite effect. The war has diminished his ability to strong-arm
Russia’s neighbors. When Azerbaijan fought a border skirmish with Armenia last
year, Russia refused to intervene on Armenia’s behalf, even though it is
Armenia’s formal ally.
A similar dynamic is
at play in Kazakhstan. Had Kyiv capitulated, Putin might have decided to invade
Kazakhstan next: the former Soviet republic has a large ethnic Russian
population, and Putin has no respect for international borders. A different
possibility now looms: if the Kremlin were to undergo regime change, it might
free Kazakhstan from Russia’s grasp entirely, allowing the country to serve as
a haven for Russians in exile. That would be far from the only change in the
region. In the South Caucasus and Moldova, old conflicts could revive and intensify.
Ankara could continue to support its partner Azerbaijan against Armenia. If
Turkey loses its fear of Russian opprobrium, it might urge Azerbaijan to press
forward with further attacks on Armenia. Turkey would have reason to step up
its military presence in Syria if Russia were to fall back.
If Russia descended
into chaos, Georgia could operate with greater latitude. The shadow of Russia’s
military force loomed over the country since the Russian-Georgian war in 2008
would be removed. Georgia could continue its quest to become a member of the
European Union eventually. However, it was bypassed as a candidate last
year because of inner turmoil and a lack of domestic reforms. Suppose the
Russian military were to withdraw from the region. In that case, conflicts
might again break out between Georgia and South Ossetia on the one hand and
between Georgia and Abkhazia on the other. That dynamic could also emerge
in Moldova and its breakaway region Transnistria, where Russian soldiers
have been stationed since 1992. Moldova’s candidacy for European Union
membership, announced in June 2022, might be its escape from this long-standing
conflict. The European Union would surely be willing to help Moldova with
conflict resolution.
Leadership changes in
Russia would shake Belarus, where the dictator Alexander Lukashenko is propped
up by Russian money and military might. Were Putin to fall, Lukashenko would,
in all likelihood, be next. A Belarusian government in exile already
exists: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in
Lithuania, became the country’s opposition leader in 2020 after her husband was
jailed for trying to run against Lukashenko. Free and fair elections could be
held, allowing the government to rescue itself from dictatorship if it managed
to insulate itself from Russia. If Belarus could not secure its independence,
Russia’s potential internal strife could spill over there, affecting neighbors
such as Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine.
If Russia
disintegrates and loses its influence in Eurasia, other actors, such
as China, will move in. Before the war, China mainly exerted
economic rather than military influence in the region. That is changing. China
is on the advance in Central Asia. The South Caucasus and the Middle East
could be their following areas of encroachment.
A defeated and
internally destabilized Russia would demand a new paradigm of global order. The
reigning liberal international order revolves around the legal management of
power. It emphasizes rules and multilateral institutions. The great-power-competition
model, a favorite of former U.S. President Donald Trump, was about the
balance of power, tacitly or explicitly viewing spheres of influence as the
source of international order. If Russia were to suffer a defeat in Ukraine,
policymakers would have to consider the presence and absence of power,
particularly the absence or severe decline of Russian influence. A
diminished Russia would impact global conflicts, including those in Africa, the
Middle East, and Europe. Yet a reduced or broken Russia would not necessarily
usher in a golden age of order and stability.
A defeated Russia
would mark a change from the past two decades when the country was an ascendant
power. Throughout the 1990s and into the first decade of this century, Russia
haphazardly aspired to integrate into Europe and partner with the United
States. Russia joined the G-8 and the World Trade Organization. It assisted
with U.S. war efforts in Afghanistan. In the four years when Dmitry Medvedev
was Russia’s president, from 2008 to 2012, Russia appeared to be playing along
with the rules-based international order if one did not look too closely behind
the curtain.
A Russia amenable to peaceful
coexistence with the West may have been an illusion. Putin projected a
conciliatory air early in his presidency. However, he may have harbored a
hatred of the West, contempt for the rules-based order, and an eagerness to
dominate Ukraine all along. In any case, once he retook the presidency in 2012,
Russia dropped out of the rules-based order. Putin derided the system as
camouflage for the domineering United States. Russia violently encroached on
Ukraine’s sovereignty by annexing Crimea, reinserted itself in the Middle
East by supporting Assad in Syria’s civil war, and erected networks of Russian
military and security influence in Africa. An assertive Russia and an ascendant
China contributed to a paradigm of great-power competition in Beijing, Moscow,
and even a post-Trump Washington.
Despite its acts of
aggression and its substantial nuclear arsenal, Russia is in no way a peer
competitor of China or the United States. Putin’s overreach in Ukraine suggests
he has not grasped this critical point. But because Putin has intervened in
regions around the world, a defeat in Ukraine that tore apart Russia would be a
resounding shock to the international system.
The defeat could, to
be sure, have positive consequences for many countries in Russia’s neighborhood.
Look no further than the end of the Cold War, when the demise of the Soviet
Union allowed for the emergence of more than a dozen free and prosperous
European countries. A Russia turned inward might help foster a “Europe whole
and free,” to borrow the phrase U.S. President George H. W. Bush used to
describe American ambitions for the continent after the Cold War ended. At the
same time, disarray in Russia could create a vortex of instability: less
great-power competition than great-power anarchy, leading to a cascade of
regional wars, migrant flows, and economic uncertainty.
Russia’s collapse
could also be contagious or the start of a chain reaction, in which case
neither the United States nor China would profit because both would struggle to
contain the fallout. In that case, the West would need to establish strategic
priorities. It would be impossible to try to fill the vacuum that a disorderly
Russian defeat might leave. In Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the United
States and Europe would have little chance of preventing China and Turkey from
moving into the void. Instead of attempting to shut them out, a more realistic
U.S. strategy would be to try to restrain their influence and offer an
alternative, especially to China’s dominance.
Whatever form
Russia’s defeat took, stabilizing eastern and southeastern Europe, including
the Balkans, would be a herculean task. Across Europe, the West would have to
find a creative answer to the questions never resolved after 1991: Is Russia a
part of Europe? If not, how high should the wall between Russia and Europe be,
and around which countries should it run? If Russia is a part of Europe, where
and how does it fit? Where does Europe itself start and end? Incorporating
Finland and Sweden into NATO would be only the beginning of this project.
Belarus and Ukraine demonstrate the difficulties of protecting Europe’s eastern
flank: those countries are the last place Russia would give up on its
great-power aspirations. And even a ruined Russia would not lose all its nuclear
and conventional military capacity.
Twice in the last 106
years—in 1917 and 1991—versions of Russia have broken apart. Twice, versions of
Russia have reconstituted themselves. If Russian power recedes, the West should
capitalize on that opportunity to shape a European environment that protects
NATO members, allies, and partners. A Russian defeat would furnish many options
and many temptations. One of these temptations would be to expect that a
defeated Russia would essentially disappear from Europe. But a defeated Russia
will one day reassert itself and pursue its interests on its terms. The West
should be politically and intellectually equipped both for Russia’s defeat and
for Russia’s return.
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