It often recurs, speaking of Vladimir Putin, the metaphor of the game of chess, according to the cliché that any Russian skilled player of this sport wants. Stereotype, of course, to a good extent corresponding to the truth, given that the discipline is taught in schools and the country has expressed world champions, one of which, Garry Kasparov, was among the first open opponents of the Russian President, and has long lived in exile in the United States.
There is no news of Putin as a chess player. On the other hand, he is sure that he is a passionate Judoka, and of a high level. Judo is the discipline that allowed a reckless street boy from Leningrad to direct his energy and anger to become the president of a superpower.
Chess is the sovereign game par excellence, all centered on a clash of forces, initially equal and openly aligned. It involves the progressive sacrifice of a series of minor characters to arrive at the paralysis of the holder of power, the King. It is the quintessence of zero-sum games: the win of one player coincides exactly with the loss of the other. But it is also a wargame, a remote confrontation between the real players of the game, who, divided by the chessboard, risk nothing on their own: intelligent, rational, clean, total, cruel.
Judo is not an intellectual exercise, but a contact sport. Competitive, but with cooperative aspects.
The first move that is taught is to fall without getting hurt, and then to get up again. The essence of Judo consists in exploiting the strength of the opponents by transforming it into weakness. It is not the strongest who wins, but the most flexible. He does not lose the weakest, but the most impetuous, the most self-confident, the most unbalanced. The skill of the judoka is expressed, much more than in pure and simple victory, in the elegance of the gestures that lead to it.
Judo also requires someone to lose, of course, but in an honorable way, and without getting hurt too much. Putin’s habit of defining his foreign interlocutors as “partners” is not a mockery, as is often believed, but stems from this habit of ritual respect for the opponent of confrontation. When he performs on the tatami he practices above all the randori, a simulated and cooperative combat.
Judo is essentially a defensive discipline, and its founder, Kanō Jigorō, defined it according to two lines: “Maximum Effectiveness with Minimum Effort” and “Prosperity and Mutual Well-being”.
Mind you, between a philosophy and its practical applications there are often big differences, and no one wants to deny that Putin uses all his strength when he has an advantage, and that he has crushed his opponents without any scruple or particular respect.
But, in his official speeches, while boasting the strength of the Russian Federation, and not skimping on threatening tones, he is even disarming in the sincerity with which he recognizes – with a wealth of data and figures, which is particularly impressive for the Italian listener , accustomed to politicians who speak while ignoring both the quidthat the quantum – the unfavorable military, technological, demographic, GDP gap with the United States. Something a Soviet leader would never admit.
It is not modesty: simply, the disparity of forces, from the judoka’s point of view, is not a problem, but even an opportunity.
American negotiators would do well to keep this in mind when they meet their Russian counterparts on January 10 to talk about Ukraine and security in Europe. They would be wrong if they thought they were playing a game of chess while the interlocutors were playing judo.
Because, if there is a country that has made the distinction between “winners” and “losers” an existential philosophy, it is the US. As well as the US have theorized the war as war game, with the least possible contact on the ground. Yet, his biggest mistakes of the last twenty years have been dictated precisely by this over-confidence: a strategic philosophy based on the preponderance of force as a deterrent factor has cost a lot and has not given the desired results.
Putin, on the other hand, has often obtained, according to the teachings of Master Kanō, the “maximum result with the minimum effort”. He conquered Crimea without a shot being fired, and blocked NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine with minimal application of force. Two military maneuvers, in the spring and autumn of 2021, earned him the attention he demanded for his “red lines”.
A series of direct talks with Biden – the man who introduced himself with the motto “America is back, diplomacy is back”- they got him to clarify his positions, and also to be recognized as an essential interlocutor.
What will be the outcome of the negotiations? Cleared the field of misunderstandings (NATO is not letting Ukraine in, and Russia has no intention of invading it, reaffirmed the positions of principle, in the end the real issue is whether or not the West will accept to include Russia in the system or rather, to take due account, in its future moves, of Russian concerns for its own security.
The other definition of Kano is that Judo is “Prosperity and Mutual Welfare”: the war of sanctions and counter-sanctions has hurt both Russia and Europe, without making significant changes.
Especially for Ukraine, which is tired of making the chessboard for third parties, and whose pedestrians emigrate en masse. It will still receive the methadone from aid, but it is compelling to note that the country, eight years after the Majdan revolt, is still unable to walk on its legs, and has even slipped into the ranking of the poorest countries in Europe, in terms of gross national income, last even after Moldova.
An article on the New York Times Christmas contained a very severe attack on President Zelensky, who, himself a comedian, surrounded himself with show business characters in his entourage. The competence of the country’s leadership to guide it in a moment of severe crisis, and its increasingly authoritarian methods, are questioned.
Not exactly the kind of endorsement you’d expect from an ally, is it?
