(Editor's note: this piece was authored by three people: George Landrith, Miklos Radvanyi, and Andras Simonyi.)

According to Immanuel Kant, “A lie is a lie, and in itself intrinsically evil, whether it be told with good or bad intent.” This wise observation reminds us of the many absurd falsehoods, deliberate distortions, and ideologically convenient narratives that have surrounded Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Yet any rational observer, even with only a modest understanding of European history and political culture, must conclude that Russia’s conduct reflects not misunderstanding or isolation, but a long-standing tradition of imperial coercion and moral nihilism. Fyodor Dostoyevsky grasped this pathology with chilling clarity in The Possessed, where political terrorism and depravity are revealed as instruments of power rather than tragic deviations.

The central challenge confronting today’s negotiators is not a lack of dialogue, but a failure to recognize the nature of the regime with which they are dealing. Moscow’s narrative of perpetual victimhood — steeped in chauvinism and historical falsification — has repeatedly served as the moral pretext for tyranny at home and violence abroad. This myth has survived not because it is true, but because it has not been sufficiently challenged.

Some in the West continue to view Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a byproduct of insecurity or diplomatic exclusion, believing that renewed engagement, concessions, or temporary ceasefires can stabilize the situation. History suggests otherwise. The Russian state, under Vladimir Putin, has demonstrated again and again that it interprets compromise not as reconciliation, but as weakness. The collapse of this system........

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