The Price of Unnecessary Wars

Ever since the war in Ukraine started over a year ago, I have been thinking how it’s sad that such a great nation like Russia is constantly putting itself in the situation where it’s waging unnecessary wars while lacking the necessary economic strength. Since the 1094/05 war with Japan when they sent the ships from the Baltic Fleet 18,000 nautical miles from Petrograd to Japan just to be defeated there, to the unnecessary war that the Soviet Union waged in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, after which the USSR fell apart, to the aggression against Ukraine today.

In Capri, I found records of Russian intellectuals - Maxim Gorky being the most famous one among them – who ended up in this Mediterranean island after leaving Russia as a sign of protest against the pointless war against Japan in 1904/05. After the October Revolution, millions of people who didn’t agree with the new regime left Russia, and many of them ended up in our regions. Whoever could flee from Stalin’s rule used that opportunity, and this continued until the disappearance of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the past few centuries, people from Russia have been leaving – the Russians are leaving, the Jews are leaving, tycoons are leaving in order to preserve their wealth, the poor are leaving in search of a better life, whoever finds a way is leaving...

I will be happiest when I see that a new generation of Russians has entered the scene, one that is aware that they have to turn their country into a desirable place to live, first of all for the residents of the Russian Federation, and then it also needs to become attractive for tourists, digital nomads and everyone else who wants to enjoy the natural beauty and cultural heritage of this country. As long as Russia tries to prove to itself and to others the status of a superpower and a new “empire where the sun never sets” by waging unnecessary wars, people will leave it, which will make some new societies richer and will forever impoverish their own country..