"Russia Really Is A 'paper Bear'
- 9.10.2025, 10:47
And there's only one reason for that.
United States President Donald Trump recently opined that Russia is a "paper tiger". This term was once used by Mao Zedong in reference to the United States and the capitalist world.
Alexander J. Motyl, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in Newark in his piece for The Hill drew particular attention to the reaction of Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov. The Kremlin mouthpiece then said that "Russia is by no means a tiger" and is traditionally considered a bear.
"There are no paper bears. Russia is a real bear ... There is nothing paper in it," Peskov said.
Motyl said these words deserve more detailed consideration. He agreed with Peskov's position that Russia is not a tiger, if by that he means a vigorous, strong and wild animal. The professor explained that because of the many mistakes and stupidities of Russian dictator Putin, today's Russia is tired and weak. It can be called wild "only to the extent that it regularly frightens the world with its attempts to pretend that it is still energetic and strong."
"Peskov is also right when he says that "Russia is traditionally seen as a bear." What Putin's spokesman failed to mention is that the origin of the bear analogy reaches back to the 16th century and was developed by Western European travelers who visited what was then Muscovy. [...] English travelers who visited Muscovy in those days called it a "rude and barbaric kingdom," Motyl wrote.
He emphasized that since it was the West that first compared Russia to a bear, it is well within its rights to add various modifiers to this comparison, including the word "paper". The author noted that in the past the bear was portrayed as "vicious and malicious or friendly and malleable". Why wouldn't it be seen today as tired and weak, the author wondered.
He added that despite what Peskov says, paper bears do exist. Moreover, just as the American president pointed out, Russia is losing a war that a bear-like country would have won three years ago:
"If Russia is indeed a real bear, as Peskov insists, it is certainly not a grizzly or a Kadyak, but rather a teddy bear or Misha, Russia's mascot at the 1980 Moscow Olympics."
And, as Motyl says, it was Putin who made Russia a "paper bear." It is the Russian dictator who has started a war against Ukraine that he cannot win, and which has already resulted in more than a million dead and wounded.
The seizure of Ukrainian territory by Russian occupation troops has almost stopped. Meanwhile, Russia has lost a quarter of its oil refining capacity to Ukrainian drone attacks. The aggressor country's economy is collapsing, and now Russia may even be on the verge of a sovereign default.
In addition, Motyl adds, crime has risen sharply in Russia. Inflation and discontent among the population are also on the rise.
NATO, which Putin scares everyone with, has expanded, while Russia itself has become "a vassal of China and North Korea," the author writes.
"Ukraine is likely to join the European Union in the near future and thereby be lost to Russia forever. This list of Putin's accomplishments could easily be continued, but even this brief enumeration makes it clear that Putin has turned Russia into a paper bear in three years. Worse, this paper bear is badly wounded, perhaps fatally. A few more years of Putin's rule, and the Russian bear may become a dead duck," stated Alexander J. Motyl.