War & Peace Quote by Boris Yeltsin

Yeltsin’s line is less a plea for peace than a bid to seize ownership of the word. By insisting on a distinction between “a lasting peace” and “so-called peace talks,” he’s doing rhetorical triage: salvaging the legitimacy of the state while preemptively discrediting any process that might constrain its use of force. The phrase “so-called” functions like a legal stamp of fraud. It doesn’t argue; it delegitimizes.

The key move is “bandits.” Not “separatists,” not “insurgents,” not even “rebels” - terms that imply a political constituency. “Bandits” drains the conflict of ideology and reduces it to criminality, inviting a policing solution (punishment) rather than a political one (negotiation). That framing also immunizes the Kremlin against criticism: if the enemy is mere thuggery, then compromise becomes appeasement, and talks become a moral mistake rather than a strategic option.

Context sharpens the intent. In the mid-1990s, Chechnya exposed the Russian post-Soviet state at its most fragile: a collapsing economy, shaky institutions, and a military struggling for coherence. Yeltsin needed to project control at home and credibility across Russia’s regions. “I would ask everyone to make no mistake” is the paternal register of a leader trying to discipline not just the public but the elite - warning would-be negotiators, journalists, and regional power brokers that the acceptable definition of “peace” will be set in Moscow.

It’s consequential language: once “talks” are recast as collaboration with criminals, escalation becomes the only respectable path.