Michel Foucher is the author of “Ukraine-Russia. The mind map of the duel” (Gallimard, Coll. “Tracts”, 64 p., €3.90).
LE FIGARO.
- You explain in your book that, unlike Ukraine, which was built on the model of the European nation-state, Russia is more like a multinational country.
Do you think this difference explains the incomprehension of many Russians with regard to the Ukrainian nation?
Michael Foucher.
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Questioning the identity of Russia is a complex subject: it is not a nation-state, it is clear, because of the presence of minorities;
the nostalgia for the empire remains, but rid of the burden of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
We can therefore put forward the term territorial state.
The insistence on the territory, which is immense, as a support of identity makes it determined by the anxiety of contraction and the reassurance of expansion.
And the more it extends, the more the perception of a risk of encirclement sets in.
Remember that the President...
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