A NEW IRON CURTAIN
EARLY IN THE BLOCKBUSTER FILM Back to the Future, Dr. Emmett Brown, a wacky but lovable scientist who goes by “Doc,” slumps to his death after an attacker pumps multiple bullets into his chest at short range. This surprisingly violent moment disrupts what was, until then, an upbeat teen comedy released to entertain Americans during the Fourth of July holiday in 1985. Doc’s young protégé Marty McFly escapes the same gruesome death only by fleeing in the scientist’s newly built time machine. As a result, Marty unexpectedly finds himself stuck in a frightening past—without a way to get back to a future that had seemed so full of promise only moments before the murder.
Sudden feelings of profound disruption, of panic at finding oneself in the throes of struggles seemingly past, of despair at being robbed of a promising future: These feelings have once again dawned—not in comic Cold War-era fiction but tragic post-Cold War reality. In the short space of time since Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin has catapulted the world backward into a dangerous past, one characterized by localized bloodshed under the shadow of potential global nuclear confrontation. This dizzying dislocation induces many questions: Why now? What’s coming next? And is there a way back?
Putin himself has provided some partial justifications for why he dragged Europe backward by amassing troops on Ukraine’s border late in 2021 and then launching a major and unspeakably brutal invasion. In his opinion—vehemently rejected by Ukrainians—Moscow has an unlimited right to dominate Kyiv, thanks to the long, tangled histories of Russians and Ukrainians. He needs to assert his domination now, he claims, because of
