An influential Newsweek has just published a programmatic editorial (!) articl...

Forwarded From Belkovsky

An influential Newsweek has just published a programmatic editorial (!) article on the theme “Putin is the lesser evil.”

The central idea: if something happens to V. V. Putin, the next Russian government may turn out to be even worse than the current one. For Russia and for the whole world. But the most alarming part is this: Mr. Putin’s successors may fail to keep control over this enormous country, and then there will be total catastrophe of the highest order.

And the publication date, probably, is by no means accidental. The article contains a tacit hint to Ukraine (V. A. Zelensky): it very much should not arrange anything deadly at the May 9, 2026 parade in Moscow.

The concept of “Putin is the lesser evil,” of course, is not new at all. President Putin himself cultivated it for many years. With the help of Russia’s systemic liberals, more broadly the progressive public, plus certain support groups in the West. Who are quite comfortable with the doctrine of Russia as an “apophatic empire.” The meaning of which lies not in carrying out any positive / constructive historical project, but exclusively in holding the territory of the Eurasian heartland. So that control over this special zone of the globe does not pass to other, cataphatic empires, underline as needed: the USA; the European Union; China; the Islamic world. Any of the named players, having obtained the Eurasian heartland, would become too powerful, which would upset whatever balance of power exists. But as long as Russia exists on this accursed heartland, united and indivisible, there will be no worldwide usurpation by anyone. Even by America, whose unipolar world has already ended, and this was officially acknowledged by the United States in the National Security Strategy (NSS) of December 4, 2025. Therefore the Russian state has always implicitly been the Territory Protection Corporation (TPC), which is by no means identical to the “development of the territory.” What matters here is control, not development.

As we remember, in 1990-91 the then-collective West watched the approaching collapse of the USSR with great apprehension. And B. N. Yeltsin, persuading respected Western partners to accept the dissolution of the communist monster as a given, used this top argument: given demographic trends, in about 20 years the USSR would become a country with a predominantly Islamic population. And do you need that?

Back in February 2006, the newspaper Vedomosti published Belkovsky’s article “A Very Small Evil”. It said, for example, the following.

“To justify any results of such a boss’s work, there exists the fundamental doctrine of the ‘lesser evil.’ This doctrine finally took shape in Russia in 2005 and has already found considerable support among intellectuals who only recently were lamenting the strategic insolvency of the ruling regime.

The doctrine is simple, like all great things. If Putin’s team leaves power, it will be replaced by predatory totalitarian xenophobes hostile to all living things. They will immediately set up the Gulag and Auschwitz on Russian soil at the same time. More than that: these fiends may take up some large modernization programs, and such things on Russian soil have never ended well. For a Russian can only be mobilized for anything with a whip and a prison guard.

According to the doctrine of the lesser evil, Putin’s government in principle bears no responsibility for the fruits of its labor and is not obliged to answer to anyone. Since it is carrying out the sole and main historical mission: occupying the warm ruling seat that otherwise would be claimed by the hideous Great Evil.

Therefore today’s government has the right to any mistakes, to any moral and legal crimes whatsoever. And we still must say ‘thank you’ for being ruled by this Very Small Evil (VSE).

This doctrine, not devoid of a certain sophistical refinement, fails to take into account the main thing. It is precisely the regime of the ‘lesser evil’ that creates all the preconditions for the coming to power of a greater evil. Great evil in history is the natural successor of small evil.”

Back then, 20 years ago, internationally there was reasoning along the lines of: Putin, of course, is not without grim shortcomings, but at least we are sure he will not commit truly great evil. For example, he will not start a war with Ukraine.

The Newsweek editorial is here: here it is.

Newsweek

Beware the sudden death of Vladimir Putin

Perspective: Putin is, an intelligence report says, in fear of assassination. The West should be careful what it wishes for.