Orlando Figes

Orlando Figes is a historian and the author of A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924. He tweets @orlandofiges

Putin’s Russian history is a fantasy

As the first cracks appear in the Kremlin leadership, it it is becoming clear that this is Putin’s war against Ukraine. Nato’s expansion is a secondary factor, the pretext Putin used to get doubters like foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on his side. Putin’s aim is to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign nation and restore it as a