Let’s Ask Ivan!

You would not believe that Quincy, in an article about how Ukrainians truly, sincerely want to end the war, would give extensive space to a dude in Russian-occupied Ukraine:

According to Ivan, who lives in eastern Ukraine under Moscow’s control, the proposals concerning halting further NATO enlargement “are key, as it was the expansion of NATO to the East that became the main trigger for our conflict. Without resolving this issue, it is impossible to resolve others.”

Ivan underscores the importance of the provisions from the original agreement for “promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice.” He believes the “eliminating racism” phrase must be replaced with “eliminating hatred”, as this “more reflects the situation in the society on both sides of the front line.” He offers the metaphor that “issues of language and religion in Ukraine are abscessing boils, without careful ‘treatment’ of which it is impossible to heal the entire ‘body’ of the state.”

While acknowledging that such a sensitive issue of territorial control will be resolved at the negotiating table, Ivan’s sincere wish is for the voices of those living in territories not controlled by Kyiv to be heard. “Ask them if they want to be ‘liberated’, if they want to return to Ukraine. Most people will answer these questions with an unequivocal ‘no.’ And most of the time, there is no politics in this. People are very tired and brave. And they want peace.”

Ok, I guess I would believe it.

It’s been a rough year for Quincy. At some point in 2023 leadership decided that they could position themselves as the think tank of MAGA foreign policy, which wasn’t wholly absurd given that most GOP foreign policy think tanks tend towards the hawkish and Heritage had a bunch of other stuff to do. This resulted in some personnel decisions that rapidly degraded the quality of the product (never high to begin with!), the platforming of David Sacks, and lascivious tongue baths for the Foreign Policy Thought of JD Vance. Humiliating stuff, really, but if it had bought them influence it might have at least been understandable. I regret to report, however, that the Trump administration has not conducted itself in accord with the noble principles of Realism and Restraint, but rather has decided to bomb everyone on the planet in the pursuit of higher margins on Jared Kushner’s stock portfolio. Also, it’s become apparent that Russia isn’t nearly as cuddly and timid as Anatol Lieven would have had you believe, and has somehow resisted the peace entreaties of Trump.

But still, even with all of that I allow myself to be surprised by “Ivan.” I suppose that when you’ve decided to allow yourself to be captured by an audience, you have to go the whole way down…