War demands centralized control, a vertical power structure, no democracy, and no freedom of thought or action. War is a convenient excuse for every problem. War allows failure to be shifted to the “enemy,” whether external or internal.
Without war, Russia cannot exist. Peace—even temporary peace—will inevitably lead to internal tensions, which so far have been smothered by external wars. In peacetime, centrifugal forces could emerge in the country, and the very existence of the Russian state as a single entity would be threatened.
Moreover, the end of the war would require an inevitable transformation of a military economy into a civilian one. But with Russia’s current legal and political structure, this is impossible.
Europe has a long history of conflict. Eventually they learned peace is much better. Perhaps the Russians have just not received the memo.
The collapse of the Soviet Union.