Do Autocrats Need a Foreign Enemy? I

Vladimir Putin, “Address by the President of the Russian Federation,” President of Rus- sia, February 21, 2022, ; Vladimir Putin, “Ad- dress by the President of the Russian Federation,” President of Russia, February 24, 2022, http:// en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67843. [...] Though his 2005 address to the Federal Assembly drew attention mostly for his remarks that the collapse of the USSR was “the greatest [or, a very great] geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” he also underscored Russia’s European identity: “For three centuries, we—together with the other European nations passed hand in hand through reforms of the Enlightenment, the difªculties of emerging parli. [...] He noted their opposition to the Iraq War,50 increased public opposition by “many other European countries” to the United States’ global inºuence, and the fact that both French and German government ministers had (reportedly) expressed concern to him about the United States’ hegemony.51 desired relations: the eu, nato, and the united states Putin drew a sharp distinction between Europe and the Uni. [...] International Security 49:1 22 the guise of humanitarian operations55 and the need for interventions to be “carried out with the approval of the UN Security Council.”56 By the time of his 2007 “Munich speech,” Putin had more deªnitively articulated what he considered the “unipolar world” to mean, arguing that it represented “one master, one sovereign” and that “at the end of the day this is pernic. [...] of course such a policy stimulates an arms race.”61 In 2008, Putin also blamed the United States for inºicting economic harm, claiming that the ªnancial crisis “began in the United States,” and that “the ªnancial and economic power of this country brought on a crisis, and all major countries in the world were then infected with this crisis.”62 55.