Vladimir Putin is tragically mistaken about what people view as leadership.
It’s no surprise that the much smaller Ukraine doesn’t have the military might to withstand invading Russian forces. The surprise is that Putin expects the world to be impressed.
No, we’re disgusted.
And those who continue to fawn over the dictator are showing their true colors.
Everyday Russians live intolerable lives. Under Putin, Russia is once again a totalitarian state whose tentacles extend far into Russians’ quotidian affairs, but none as threatening as their individual liberties. Flat out, there is no such thing as peaceful assembly there and you risk your life whether it’s to march for gay rights or against the invasion of Ukraine.
The first issue is why some conservatives in the United States pay homage to Putin. Discriminating against the LGBQT community aligns with their far-right values.
Putin fanned the flames of that hate as well as that of other culture wars unique to the United States and other democracies — gun rights, abortion rights, racial discrimination — through his disinformation campaign that in 2016 helped elect Donald Trump, someone the former KGB agent sensed he could influence.
The Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol uprising was a red-letter day for Putin.
That we were on the brink of overthrowing democracy is all the more frightening in context of today’s events.
Just as with Jan. 6, we have a hard time punishing those who wish our country harm.
In the case of the uprising, it’s because Trump still holds the Republican Party in his grip and to verify that he backed the attempted coup could be politically devastating.
In regard to Putin, Western countries, including the United States, initially were loath to enact sanctions because of disruption to their economies.
Over the past 20 years, Russian oligarchs have had Putin’s blessing to pursue business deals that weave an international web. Today, the European Union depends a great deal on Russia’s oil and gas exports. Some 40 percent of its gas and 25 percent of its oil come from Russia.
These exports are the backbone of the Russian economy, creating, economists had hoped, political stability.
But in Putin’s mind, every gallon of gas or oil sent Europe’s way, every ton of wheat sent to India, every investment in London’s high end real estate or Belgium’s diamonds or Italy’s luxury goods, was transactional.
