‘Tsar Vladimir’ launches a new cold war

In 1721 Russia won the great northern war. It had captured swathes of land on the Baltic coast. Tsar Peter the Great declared the birth of a Russian empire.

Three centuries later Russia’s leader has turned his attention to the same region. In recent weeks Vladimir Putin’s aircraft have twice buzzed US warships there and his submarines have entered Swedish waters.

And he is not stopping there. Commentator Roger Boyes says Putin is launching an “Arctic cold war” to take advantage of melting sea ice and make Russia wealthier. Russia’s military presence in the Arctic will soon be bigger than all other powers combined.

In a recent strategy paper, Putin said Western powers wanted to overthrow “legitimate political regimes”. Since 2007, when he said the USA had “imposed itself on other states”, his forces have attacked Georgia and seized control of Crimea.

These conflicts have raised concerns that he is asserting Russian nationalism at home. He has cultivated a close relationship with the highly traditional Russian orthodox church, and in 2009 a poll suggested the Russian people were largely hostile to Western society.

Putin is also an authoritarian who has extended his own term of office, increased the penalties for taking part in unsanctioned protests and cracked down on opposition. Some say he has developed “state capitalism”.

His behaviour has drawn comparisons with Russia’s tsars, particularly Peter. “For Putin,” says Boyes, “Peter must seem the very model of a modernising megalomaniac.”

Peter assumed control of an introspective Russia — a rural country with an identity based on orthodox religion and suspicion of foreigners. He sought to change this by fighting Turkey and Sweden, building the Westernised city of St Petersburg and industrialising the economy. Later Catherine the Great studied European philosophy, encouraged the growth of the arts and extended Russia’s influence to the south and west.

In 2000 Putin said: “I cannot imagine my country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilised world.” But do his actions reflect the principles of the reforming tsars or isolationist, traditional Russia?

Emperor or ideologue?

Boyes says Putin considers Peter his “favourite tsar”. Like Peter, he wants to enrich his nation and create new opportunities for his people. His willingness to build up the military and his attempts at expansion are symptomatic of an outward-looking leader.

Others say his main concern is at home. He wants to strengthen the traditional identity of the Russian people. He is more like Alexander III — a reactionary strongman who thought liberal ideas, such as democracy, had caused his father’s death — than Peter or Catherine. His opposition to the West is ideological.