Mnogokhodovochka: Europe on the Edge

Zarina Zabrisky reports from Ukraine, Georgia, and Germany on how Russia's invasion was just the first step in a Machiavellian plan to build a new European empire

Wooden windows on the Independence Prospect in Kherson, Ukraine, February 2025. Photo: Zarina Zabrisky

Mnogokhodovochka

On the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the world order is no longer shifting—it’s spiraling. While Ukraine fights for survival on the 600-mile frontline, Russia’s hybrid warfare weaves global changes on the invisible front.

The Kremlin’s long-term goal is to expand Russian economic and geopolitical interests to create an empire. To pursue its goal, the Kremlin carries out a mnogokhodovochka—a strategy of layered moves and Machiavellian micro steps, with an occasional well-timed trump card. In this real-life chess game countries become pawns. Ideas are weapons. Minds are battlefields. Players hack the collective consciousness to transform political landscapes. Intellectual warfare leads to physical destruction. Moves range from a far-right surge in Europe to countries and regions drifting into Russia’s orbit. The overall outcome reshapes the global order. It is as insane as it sounds but human psyche has never been a paragon of sanity—at least not in Russia, as any reader of Dostoevsky will know.

Mnogokhodovochka spans continents. Taking over the baton from the USSR, the Kremlin spent decades cultivating a strong network of agents of influence and weaponizing all aspects of the political, economic, and cultural life around the globe.