No. Not exactly.
But I have compared him favourably to Macron. Reason being, Macron is supposed to be an ally. A democratic soulmate. A peace-in-Europe advocate. A cultural cousin, sharing philosophical outlooks from Catholicism (not necessarily of the Roman variety) to the Enlightenment.
Putin on the other hand is, if not a true communist, certainly not a democrat. He’s not mad. He’s bad. Just look at how he treats the opposition. Novichok with your tea, anyone? Russians are mainly Orthodox Christians, and they never really ‘got’ the Enlightenment. Too busy fighting Napoleon, who was French by the way (well, Corsican, but close enough).
So while we would expect Putin not to defend or support the UK, and he doesn’t, we would expect a French leader to at least tolerate us and work towards our nations’ common good. Hence my ambivalence? indifference? something like that, towards Putin and loathing of Macron.
I remember when the Berlin Wall fell (1989) and former communist countries later snuck into the EU with their tails between their legs. I said something then, knee-jerk and not researched, along the lines of – I bet Russia’s not happy. And I was right. I’m not a military strategist, but I felt a neutral buffer between Europe and Russia made sense militarily, economically, and culturally. Three-out-of-three ain’t bad for the lady who could have invented the concept of the off-the-cuff remark.
And when Ukraine erupted in a sea of orange (2004) because of corrupt elections in favour of the more autocratic Yanukovych, which led to a re-run and the eventual ‘free and fair’ election of the pluralistic Yushchenko, I remember thinking that Putin might not like his Russian citizens witnessing the power of the people so close to home.
Yanukovych eventually came to power and in 2013 refused to sign a political association and free-trade agreement with the EU. The Euromaidan riots ensued, Yanukovych lost power in 2014 and Putin annexed Crimea to protect Russian interests. A bit whistle-stop I know, but the underlying message is, the EU made overtures to Ukraine that unsettled Putin. It’s obvious with hindsight. And for those of us who didn’t blindly support an ever-expanding, arrogant, ignorant, strategically inept EU, we could see something was up all along.
And then Ukraine wanted to join NATO, whose raison d'être is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. Like, Putin was going to stand by and watch NATO troops win the right to station themselves so close to Russia. Even if he knew himself that nothing untowards would actually happen, he had to act tough to keep his even more hawkish generals on side, and to curry favour with ‘Dzho Pablik’ by looking like their great protector.
So we are where we are because of the West’s myopia and Russian paranoia – Russia looks as if it’s about to invade Ukraine. Apparently, Putin has said he won’t as long as Ukraine doesn’t join NATO. Normally I support a sovereign nation’s right to join or not join what they darn well want and not be bullied into dancing to others’ tunes (gee, am I talking about the EU or Russia?). However, in this case, as the West has been strategically inept since 1989 and has missed repeated warning signs when they could have modified their approach earlier with the loss of less face, or less loss of face – I need another coffee – then discretion now is indeed the better part of valour.
Nah zda-rovh-yeh!
No comments:
Post a Comment