Why did Russia invade Ukraine? What motivates Vladimir Putin? What do Russians believe about the war?

To help cut through the fog of war and explain the back story behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we turned to Russia expert Will Pyle. He is Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College and an affiliate of the programs in International Politics and Economics and Russian and East European Studies. 

Pyle says that Putin “viewed the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century.” He adds that “very rarely do empires break up peacefully … What we're seeing now is the conflict associated with an imperial breakup, where the imperial center says, 'No, we're not going to allow the periphery, these colonies, to go their own way without a fight.'”

Pyle recently wrote in the Washington Post about the attitudes of ordinary Russians. He tells The Vermont Conversation, “Russians’ willingness to sacrifice material wellbeing for national foreign policy goals is much greater than citizens in other countries.” However, he is less optimistic about “their willingness to tolerate body bags and economic costs imposed by the sanctions, [which] are going to be really brutal.”

“That willingness of the Russian public to tolerate sacrifice — it's not unlimited,” he said.