Putin says Russia has approved 'world first' Covid-19 vaccine
cnn.comI feel sorry for all the Russians who would fell for this worlds-first geopolitical stunt!
A lot of people are criticizing Russia and Putin for this action. I see this differently: Russia is a militaristic country, and it has been one for about a thousand years or so. Putin is its current czar. Putin and the rest of Russia's leadership perceive that the country is at war. Not an open, declared war with the West, but a war nonetheless. This is a war action. Putin talked with his advisors and weighed the pros and the cons. Cons: some people might die. Pros: if this thing works, Russia opens up the economy half a year ahead of the rest of the world. They also end up exporting this vaccine, and this in itself could be profitable. They gain prestige. In war time you risk people's lives. But overall, if the pros outweigh the cons, as a war-time leader you simply say "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead".
I'd grant they're pretty big cultural differences between Slavic, Germanic, and Latino European (the latter two constituting Western Europe plus or minus Czech Republic, Slovakia which spent half of that time under German rule) cultures, but what differentiator for a "militaristic country"?
America is no less militaristic than Russia while being considerably younger, and if we're talking the last 1000 years, I wouldn't call Western Europe some kind of alternative to militaristic, it was Germanic nobility duking it out for about half of that, followed by violent imperialism for the majority of the other half.
I guess my remark with 1000 years, while valid, could end up sidetracking us. My point is, countries like the UK, France, Germany, the US, besides having a militaristic side during their history, also brought us the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, all sorts of advancements in science and culture. Their progress was closely protected by their military force, but was not a result of the military force only. Russia on the other hand was always expansionist and belligerent. Sometimes the fortunes acquired via military conquest were reinvested in science, mathematics, technology, culture, but all these things followed, didn't lead. The Soviet Union built satellites, rockets, great jet fighters and world class tanks. Peace-oriented technologies, not so much.