PUTIN'S REVISIONIST HISTORY AND THE 2014 INVASION Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. During the COVID-19 isolation of 2021, Vladimir Putin wrote an essay based on historical myths, asserting Ukrainians and Russians are one people and denying Ukraine's rig

PUTIN'S REVISIONIST HISTORY AND THE 2014 INVASION Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. During the COVID-19 isolation of 2021, Vladimir Putin wrote an essay based on historical myths, asserting Ukrainians and Russians are one people and denying Ukraine's right to independent statehood. Finkel argues this revisionism signaled Putin's intent to restore Russia as a great empire. The conversation reviews the 2014 Maidan revolution, which Putinperceived as a loss of control, prompting the invasion of Crimea and the Donbas. Finkel clarifies that while some locals in the east preferred Russia, the violent uprising was engineered by Russian security services and mercenaries, not a genuine organic movement. NUMBER 5
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