Genocide against "his own": Putin is at war against the last "non-Russian" in Russia
It is a mistake to believe that the destruction of Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state is the only goal of Russia and its leader Putin. This goal is the main and most important, but parallel to it there are several other goals and tasks. The fighting during the war against Ukraine does not abate, they last so long because they perform several other functions, most notably helping Putin maintain power and exterminate indigenous peoples within the Russian Federation.
Consolidation of power
However formal the elections in the Russian Federation are, they still exist and carry certain risks for the Putin regime.
In the summer of 2020, the Russian leader could see with his own eyes how unexpected and powerful popular discontent can be - the elections for the president of Belarus and the attempted revolution in this country became a cold shower for all post-Soviet autocracies.
Perhaps it was during those days that Putin realized that, in order to retain power, he needed some kind of bright victory - for example, a quick victorious war.
If Putin managed to occupy Ukraine in three days and replace the government with a puppet one, it would indeed be a significant victory for him, which could increase his support and popularity, allowing him to extend his power for another presidential term or two.
But since the blitzkrieg failed, Putin decided to continue the war and by all possible means - mobilization, administration, propaganda - to consolidate society around the current government and the "impossibility of defeat" (note that it is no longer "inevitable victory", but "impossibility of defeat"!) .
One way or another, the Russian authorities have managed to maintain or even increase support - the majority of the population supports Putin in his war against Ukraine. Therefore, Putin should maintain the level of tension at least until the spring of 2024.
Society should be scared with the possibility of defeat and disintegration of the Russian Federation, to unite around Putin and to extend his rule and enable another presidential term. This is very useful, because in this light all Putin's opponents automatically become enemies of the state and "rock the boat".
But the sad truth must be faced - it is unlikely that the Russian Federation will ease military pressure on Ukraine by March 2024.
"Nerus" genocide
The practice of mobilizing criminals directly from prisons into the Russian army - the so-called "convicts" - who were promised freedom in exchange for participating in the war in Ukraine, has received worldwide attention. In this context, the private mercenary army "Wagner" became particularly notorious.
In fact, the Russian regime cleans the prisons and simply takes care of the entire population - they are sent to the front unprepared and often without the necessary ammunition. Cannon fodder, just like that.
There is a lot of talk about "Zeks", but few pay attention to what can be called ethnic cleansing, which the Russian regime is carrying out in Russia itself, mobilizing representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus and Siberia for war.
After all, it seems that Putin's second goal in the framework of the large-scale war against Ukraine is the extermination of those who do not fit into the doctrine of the "Russian world", i.e. "non-Russians", i.e. indigenous peoples and national minorities from the Russian Federation itself.
Do you remember that in the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine there was a lot of talk about the Buryats? That was only the visible part of the tip of the iceberg, in fact, the formation of military units of the Russian Federation has all the structural features of a genocidal policy.
Further mobilization in Russia clearly showed that it is the national republics and regions where indigenous peoples live that are the main "sources" for replenishing the Russian army. North Ossetia, Buryatia, Tuva, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chukotka and the Idel-Ural region are the leaders in terms of the number of people killed in the war.
Representatives of ethnic and religious minorities, criminal elements are sent to the front, and in this way a grandiose purge is taking place in Russia.
Strictly speaking, here one can see the predatory smile of Russian nationalism, which by degeneration has become a bloodthirsty ideology of mass destruction of people.
Russian propagandists often repeat that the war is "to the last Ukrainian". And that is true, because the goal of the Russian Federation is the genocide of the Ukrainian people and the dismantling of Ukrainian statehood. But there is another aspect: in parallel, there is a war to the last "non-Russian" in Russia, a racial, religious and ethnic cleansing on a colossal scale.
Blinded by Russian nationalism, Putin decided to purge the Russian Federation of "foreign" elements, to make it only Russian.
But this crime against humanity can turn into a boomerang - Russia will become Russian, but only within its ethnic borders. At least psychotherapists would confirm - the internal war against indigenous peoples and minorities is a subconscious attempt to break up the Russian Federation and divide it into nation-states.