A way out of the war in Ukraine

An interview with man of letters, cultural historian, philosopher and author of sixty books Nicholas Hagger whose new book The Fall of the West investigates the origin of covid-19, the levelling-down of the West and, with the rise of China, the shift of power to the East

Russian President Vladimir Putin might have signalled a way out of the devastating war with Ukraine, and it could be the West’s best way of ending the conflict, says Nicholas Hagger, whose new book The Fall of the West issues an urgent warning to the Western world.

As The Fall of the West (O-Books, November 2022) was completed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, as Nicholas thinks the war there could further weaken the West and NATO unless an imaginative way can be found to extricate Russia, I asked him about this crucial situation. The interview follows on from my review of The Fall of the West (link here).

On October 24, 2022, Putin gave a long speech at the Valdai Discussion Club, a Moscow think-tank, during which he called a number of times for a ‘multipolar’ New World Order in which Russia would be an equal partner.

For example, he said Russia was ‘hoping that pragmatism will triumph and Russia’s dialogue with the genuine, traditional West, as well as with other coequal development centres, will become a major contribution to the…