The Zelensky Method

The end of Vladimir Putin's reign can be dated with precision. When Putin declared war on Ukraine with his February 24th, 2022, invasion, he guaranteed his own demise. Because of Putin's "special military operation," conditions are ripe for a global future in which Russia is a reduced international force. The Zelensky Method, however, does more than take aim at Putin, the Russian oligarchs who have benefited from his rule and the Russian people who are complicit in the disastrous project that is Russky Mir - the fantasy of an imperial Russia for a post-Cold War era.

The Zelensky Method explains why Ukraine has been able to thwart Putin's ambitions. Key to resisting Putin's imperial fantasy are the ways in which the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been able to present himself as figure of and for global democracy, as a reluctant revolutionary forced by history to rally his people and the world against Putin's violence. A man brave enough to refuse the US's offer to airlift him out of Kyiv to safety. We remember the signature moment of Zelensky's defiance: "I don't need a ride. I need ammo."

Locating Russian's war within a global context, The Zelensky Method is unsparing in its critique of those nations, such as China, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE, who have refused to condemn Russia's invasion and are doing everything they can to prevent economic sanctions from being imposed on the Kremlin.

Grant Farred is the author of, most recently, An Essay for Ezra: Racial Terror in America (2021) and Only a Black Athlete Can Save Us Now (2022).