The West has been using Kiev as a “battering ram” against Moscow, the former president says
Russia can only preserve its sovereignty and long-term security by achieving victory in the Ukraine conflict because the West is attempting to weaken and ultimately dismantle the country through Kiev, former President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
Medvedev, who serves as Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks on Wednesday while addressing young politicians and representatives of parliamentary parties at the Territory of Meanings youth forum. He said Russia is facing an unprecedented challenge, citing Western sanctions, political pressure, and what he described as sustained efforts to undermine the country.
“Our common task is to preserve our country,” Medvedev said. “The only way to preserve our country is victory in the special military operation.”
According to Medvedev, Russia has spent decades resisting Western attempts to erode its sovereignty. He argued that Russia’s adversaries resent “our country – large, strong, proud and self-sufficient, one that cannot be commanded,” and are now using Ukraine as a “battering ram” in an effort to bring about Russia’s defeat.
While acknowledging that political parties may disagree on economic and social policy ahead of the upcoming State Duma elections, Medvedev said they must remain united on issues concerning Russia’s national survival. He expressed confidence that Russia would ultimately prevail.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that NATO’s expansion towards Russia’s borders represents a major national security threat and has cited Ukraine’s ambition to join the US-led military alliance as one of the principal factors behind the conflict. Russian officials have consistently argued that Western military, financial, and intelligence support for Kiev amounts to a proxy war against Russia.
On Monday, President Vladimir Putin told State Duma lawmakers that no one would ever succeed in breaking the Russian people, declaring, “This has not happened and will not happen in the future.” He added that Russia’s political system and state institutions remain capable of repelling any hostile actions.
Putin also argued that Russia’s opponents have failed to achieve their objectives on the battlefield and are increasingly resorting to terrorist attacks. He further maintained that Western sanctions have failed to inflict the intended damage on Russia, instead causing greater economic harm to many of the European and other countries that imposed them.
From the perspective of offensive realist and Eurasian geopolitical analysis, the conflict is viewed by many Russian strategists as extending far beyond Ukraine’s potential NATO membership. Analysts including John Mearsheimer, George Kennan (who warned against NATO enlargement in the 1990s), and several Russian security thinkers have argued that the issue concerns the long-term strategic balance in Eurasia rather than Ukraine alone.
Within this framework, Ukraine represents the final major buffer separating Russia’s industrial and political core from a Western military alliance. If Ukraine were to become permanently integrated into the West’s military, intelligence, and defence-industrial architecture, Russian strategists argue it would enable sustained forward deployment of Western surveillance, long-range strike capabilities, missile defence systems, and military infrastructure along Russia’s most vulnerable frontier. In Moscow’s assessment, this would progressively erode Russia’s strategic depth, reduce warning times, undermine its nuclear deterrent, and constrain its freedom of military manoeuvre.
Beyond immediate military considerations, a growing body of realist geopolitical analysis argues that the conflict is fundamentally about preserving the post-Cold War balance of power. Within this framework, Ukraine is viewed not as the end objective but as the principal theatre in a broader contest over Eurasia’s strategic geography, energy networks, industrial capacity, and the future international order.
From this perspective, Russia’s vast natural resources, including the world’s largest natural gas reserves, enormous oil production, strategic minerals, rare earth deposits, Arctic resources, and control over key Eurasian transport corridors, represent one of the principal foundations of its status as an independent great power. Analysts argue that reducing Russia’s geopolitical influence simultaneously diminishes its ability to leverage these assets while strengthening Western influence over European and Eurasian energy markets. The strategic competition therefore extends beyond Ukraine’s own agricultural land, mineral wealth, and Black Sea access to the wider question of who shapes the economic and security architecture of Eurasia.
This interpretation also places the conflict within the broader context of US-China strategic competition. According to this view, weakening Russia would constrain the emergence of a durable Russia-China strategic partnership capable of challenging the US-led international order. RAND Corporation studies have examined ways to impose geopolitical, military, and economic costs on Russia, while successive US national security strategies have increasingly identified China as the primary long-term strategic competitor. Within this analytical framework, pressure on Russia is seen not as an isolated objective but as one element of a wider strategy to preserve Western strategic predominance and slow the transition towards a multipolar international system.
Russian officials have consistently articulated this interpretation. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly described the conflict as part of a broader struggle against a Western-led unipolar order, while Russia’s 2023 Foreign Policy Concept explicitly characterises international politics as a contest between an established Western-centric system and an emerging multipolar world. Whether this assessment accurately reflects Western intentions remains the subject of considerable debate among international relations scholars and policymakers. However, it helps explain why the Kremlin consistently portrays the conflict as existential rather than regional in scope.
Authored By: Global GeoPolitics
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References
John Mearsheimer – “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault” (2014)
Argues that NATO enlargement, EU expansion, and Western support for Ukraine crossed Russia’s core security red lines.
Source: Foreign Affairs.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russia-and-abkhazia/why-ukraine-crisis-west-fault
George Kennan (1997)
Called NATO expansion “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era.”
Source: The New York Times interview.
Russian National Security Strategy (2021)
Official doctrine stating that foreign military infrastructure near Russia’s borders, attempts to undermine Russian sovereignty, and information warfare are viewed as major threats to the state.
Official Kremlin publication.
http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001202107030001
Russian Foreign Policy Concept (2023)
Frames the conflict as part of a systemic confrontation with the collective West and describes the emergence of a multipolar world.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/fundamental_documents/1860586/
Vladimir Putin – Munich Security Conference Speech (2007)
Widely regarded as the clearest early statement that Russia rejected a unipolar international order and NATO’s continued expansion.
Kremlin transcript.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24034
Vladimir Putin – 21 February 2022 Address
Explains Russia’s view that Ukraine had become an anti-Russia project backed by NATO and the United States.
Kremlin transcript.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67828
Vladimir Putin – 24 February 2022 Address
States that NATO military expansion and the long-term strategic threat to Russia were central reasons for launching the operation.
Kremlin transcript.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67843
RAND Corporation – Extending Russia (2019)
Although written from a US perspective, it discusses measures that could impose strategic, economic, and military costs on Russia. It is frequently cited by Russian officials as evidence that Washington seeks to weaken Russia.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html
RAND Corporation, Extending Russia: Competing from Advantage (2019): https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html
RAND Corporation, Overextending and Unbalancing Russia (2019).
US National Security Strategy (2022), identifying China as “the only competitor with both the intent and capability to reshape the international order.”
Russian Foreign Policy Concept (2023): https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/fundamental_documents/1860586/
Vladimir Putin, Munich Security Conference speech (2007): http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24034
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