President Vladimir Putin, who often cites history to provoke nationalist sentiments, compared himself to Peter the Great, the emperor who expanded Russian territory in the 18th century through prolonged conflict, in remarks that underlined his revanchist ambitions. In a speech to Russian businessmen on Thursday – the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth – Putin appeared to link his bloody invasion of Ukraine to Russia’s imperial past. Putin, whose hometown of St. Petersburg is named after the tsar, praised the building of Peter’s empire and suggested that the land taken by the tsar rightfully belonged to Russia. Peter dramatically expanded the scope of his rule, turning Russia into an empire and declaring himself emperor. At the turn of the 18th century, the Great Northern War broke out, a two-decade-long conflict with the Swedish Empire that led to Russia taking over a Baltic region. “What was [Peter] “Taking back and strengthening. That did. And it seems to have fallen on us to take back and strengthen as well.” The comments were widely regarded as referring to Putin’s attack on Ukraine, which he had long regarded as part of Russia’s sphere of influence. The tsar, whose legacy is widely known to the Russian public, is the model authoritarian leader Putin has long aspired to become, said Kyle Wilson, who served as an Australian diplomat in the Soviet Union. Putin has made it clear that “he will relive the Russian imperial dream,” Wilson said. “And the man who made Russia an imperial empire was Peter the Great.” The tsar “will live as long as his purpose is alive,” Putin told Britain’s Financial Times in a 2019 interview. Putin’s myth is being drilled Putin said that about 1,000 international companies that have withdrawn from Russia since the end of February will “regret” it. He also suggested that the West remain dependent on Moscow’s energy exports for some time, despite concerted efforts to cut fossil fuel imports from Russia in the aftermath of the war. “It is impossible – you understand – impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia,” Putin said. The Russian leader also noted that the conquest of Swedish-controlled land – now St. Petersburg – was not initially recognized by other European powers. This seemed to be a nod to the international community’s refusal to recognize Russian control of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Putin annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Putin has long sought to appropriate Russia’s imperial past to form a modern national identity, Villanova University Russian history professor Lynn Hartnett wrote in the Washington Post. In 2012, Putin called on Russians to reconnect with their past and realize that they have “a common, continuous history spanning more than 1,000 years.” But his growing alienation from the West is in stark contrast to Peter’s embrace of Europe. The tsar was the first Russian ruler to visit European countries, according to the Kunstkamera Museum founded by Peter three centuries ago. The Russian monarch cultivated diplomatic ties with the continent, admired European art and culture, and sought to attract European scholars to live in Russia. He also moved the seat of Russian rule from Moscow to St. Petersburg to bring his empire “geographically, economically and spiritually closer to Western Europe,” according to French historian Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan.
