The Motives of the Russian War on Ukraine: Corruption, Empire, Philosophy, Raison d’état and Religion

This article examines the motives for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The topic is explored through five principles developed by Kenneth Burke to analyse motives: act, scene, agent, agency and purpose. The major claim is that the war is being waged to ensure the longevity of the Putin regime and so allow the corrupt and power-hungry political elite to retain their positions. The kleptocratic state is kept afloat by means of waging war only through a system which can implicate wealthy and powerful individuals in serious crimes at any moment, suppresses dissent and produces expansive propaganda for the broader population. This war is a result of the privatisation of the political state and its deliberate transformation into the state of nature, which poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to Russia itself and the entire world.