Dejan Steinbuch

One of the biggest problems with some Western leaders is that they still haven't understood the true nature of Vladimir Putin. This man, consumed by countless personal insecurities and complexes, is, first and foremost, a coward. And second, he understands only brute force. I became convinced of this on two occasions. The first was in 2015, when Turkey shot down a Russian military aircraft that had violated its airspace. Putin initially threw a tantrum, accusing Ankara of provocation and declaring that the Turks wouldn't get away with it by simply losing their tomato exports. Erdoğan, however, invited Putin to come to Istanbul for talks if he had any complaints. Putin never went. Eventually, the conflict faded away, and relations between the two countries were gradually restored. The second occasion came in Syria, when American forces annihilated a group of Russian mercenaries attempting to seize an oil facility near Khasham in Deir ez-Zor province. Once again, Putin backed down, swallowed the humiliation, and quietly buried the incident. After these two textbook examples, Putin became considerably more cautious about confronting either Turkey or the United States directly. And this is precisely why I believe Putin will never face Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a genuine confrontation. First, because he is a coward. Second, because he would have no answers to Zelenskyy's questions. And third, because he might even be terrified that Zelenskyy would kill him right there, in front of the cameras, on live television. 😂 For the same reason, Putin has never participated in genuine presidential debates against real political opponents such as Alexei Navalny or Boris Nemtsov, both of whom were killed. Nor has he ever faced a truly independent press conference where, instead of obedient Kremlin propagandists, he would have to answer uncomfortable questions from journalists like Michael Naki or Yevgeny Kiselyov. If I were an adviser to Alexander Stubb, who until today seemed to me one of Europe's most sensible leaders, I would remind him of one simple thing: there should be no conversations with Putin. This former bullied little nobody from the backstreets of St. Petersburg interprets every attempt at dialogue as weakness. That is why today's talks involving Stubb, Jonas Gahr Støre, and the coward in the Kremlin are, in my opinion, a serious mistake. They merely hand Putin another propaganda victory before a Russian population that seems to have largely surrendered to collective madness. No negotiations. No heartfelt conversations. Only devastating sanctions, relentless pressure, and concrete actions against Russia. As for nuclear weapons, I believe those threats will remain the empty rhetoric of Kremlin propagandists. Putin loves himself far too much to risk his own survival. Just look at the additional air defenses surrounding his residences. Even strikes against Moscow might leave him indifferent. There is only one thing he truly cares about: his own life. And to preserve it, he has already dragged his entire country into the gutter. Meanwhile, much of Russian society seems willing to endure almost anything, provided the bloodshed continues and the familiar refrain survives: "We've been through worse! We'll survive this too! At least it's not the 1990s!" This, unfortunately, reflects a particular feature of Russia's political and social mentality — Russian in the sense of the state and its historical culture, not ethnicity. That is why I insist: no more conversations. Only actions. Preferably asymmetric ones. Yet many European politicians still fail to understand the extraordinary moral monster they are dealing with, or how perfectly Putin embodies the darkest instincts and historical ambitions of Russian imperial society. God willing, one day they will understand. And to paraphrase Pyotr Chaadayev: "Perhaps God invented Russia to show humanity how not to live."