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| A Russian soldier killed in Putin's invasion - for what end? |
Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and members of its armed forces have already been killed, along with invading Russian troops. Russian saboteurs have infiltrated Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Their goal is to topple the government and kill Volodymyr Zelensky, the democratically elected president (who won his election with 73% of the national vote).
Putin claims that his attack is to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, despite the fact that President Zelensky is Jewish, that members of his family died in the Holocaust, and that other family members joined the Red (Soviet) Army to fight the Nazis and died in that struggle .
President Zelensky has asked Putin to begin negotiations so the fighting can stop. Putin's response was to ask Ukrainians to take up arms against their government who he referred to as " a group of drug addicts and neo-Nazis." Although Putin continues to say he wants negotiations, his response to Zelensky was not that of someone who is serious about ending the current war peacefully.
Putin references neo-Nazis and drug addicts in bizarre speech to Russian security council
Putin's invasion is an attack on democracy and human rights, and threatens to destabilize Europe and the world beyond. Already, wheat supplies from Ukraine, one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, have been disrupted, threatening food supplies to countries dependent on it. What is happening is the result of the ego of an aging Russian leader who has rehabilitated Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator who is responsible for killing over 30 million Soviet citizens, and who seeks to resurrect the Soviet Union to cement his "legacy" as a "Great Russian Leader."
When Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky proposed talks to end the war, Putin response demonstrated that only regime change and the destruction of Ukraine's democracy will end his vicious attack. Having indicated that Ukraine has always been part of Russia, and that it has no legitimate status as an independent nation-state, it is clear Putin wants to incorporate Ukraine into the Russian Federation.
This week Donald Trump called Putin a “savvy and smart guy” for launching his invasion of Ukraine to serve as a "peacekeeper.". Meanwhile, China and India were among the handful of nations which have not condemned Russia’s attack and abstained in a UN Security Council resolution condemning the invasion. Meanwhile, Italy said it would join the European Union in imposing sanctions on Russia, but they wouldn’t include “luxury goods,” such as Ferrari automobiles. Belgium said its sanctions wouldn’t apply to diamonds.
Italy's luxury sector and Belgium's diamond leaders question effectiveness of Russian sanctions
What do these comments and decisions tell us about the state of global democracy? Two things. First, autocracy is on the move and democratic Western nations are doing little to stop it. Autocratic government comes in “soft” and “hard” forms. It either manifests itself as populism or sham democracy, or as strong repression. The latter form includes the imprisonment and torture of anyone who expresses dissent with the reigning leader and political order. We have seen this repression in the arrest and imprisonment of over a thousand Russians who have taken to the streets of Russian cities to protest the war.
Second, money talks. Profits, the currency of the neoliberal realm, increasingly trump democratic values. In this framing of society, all citizens are engaged in an implicit “war of all against all,” not in the Hobbesian state of nature sense of the term, but in their goal-oriented behavior in liberal democratic societies. Status is defined by wealth. Building political community and civic engagement are relics of the past. Individual advancement, whether it adversely affects society or not, is what the young are being taught to value by their elders.
Current sanctions are not enough
Despite President Biden’s assertion that the US and its European Union allies have imposed the toughest sanctions ever deployed on the Putin regime and Russia, they are insufficient. It is understandable that the West seeks to avoid a military confrontation with Putin. However, the US and the West have come up seriously short in the sanctions regime they have applied thus far. Placing sanctions on Russia’s oil and natural gas exports, breaking diplomatic relations with Putin's regime, and refusing to issue any visas to Russians seeking to travel to the West are necessary if the sanctions are to have any immediate impact.
Above all, sanctions must include uncovering the stashes of the illicit gains of the Russian Oligarchs who benefit from and support Putin if the sanctions are to really bite. Putin's Oligarchs own mansions, yachts, and football clubs in Western countries and have money deposited in Western banks and invested in Western corporations. Their ill-gotten wealth is, in fact, constantly being laundered through Western countries.
The Oligarchs’ influence is especially strong in the United Kingdom. Their families often maintain permanent residence in London and elsewhere, obtain education in elite schools and universities, and vacation there as well. Many Oligarchs have made significant contributions to Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in an effort to deflect any inquiry into the status of the funds they bring to the United Kingdom.
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As Paul Krugman and others have noted, Europe unwisely tethered its energy needs to Russian supplies of oil and natural gas. The resultant dependence on Russian energy has led Putin to believe that any political behavior in which he engages, no matter how destructive and beyond the parameters of international law, will not engender a Western response.
It is to Chancellor Olaf Scholtz’s credit that, immediately after Russia attacked Ukraine, he stopped the process of approving the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. However, Scholtz’s courageous act, which will increase still further the already high prices Germans pay for natural gas, stands in sharp contrast to the behavior of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
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Despite serving as the former leader of Germany’s august Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has stood for social justice since its founding in the late 19th century, Schroeder recently accepted a position on the Board of Directors of Russia’s Gazprom, one of the most corrupt state-owned energy companies in the world, and a major source of Putin’s power. Gazprom’s profits have given the Russian dictator the ability to develop a new generation of hypersonic missiles which can carry nuclear warheads.
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Putin’s message to the world’s authoritarian leaders
Great Britain, the United States and other Western countries should launch a comprehensive investigation to uncover and seize the assets of Putin’s Oligarch allies. Removing the Oligarchs’ funds will drive at least one major spike into Putin’s coffin. The Oligarchs are all dependent on Putin. If they see that their continued relationship with him will lead to their financial ruin, they may be those who flee Russia, undermining his ability to sustain his reckless and destructive policies.
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| Russia's "Londongrad" Oligarchs |
| Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the removal of its democratically elected government will send a dangerous message to other tyrants around the world. Not surprisingly, given Russian military and financial aid, one of the few countries which has supported Putin’s actions in Ukraine is Syrian dictator Bashar al-Asad, whose policies have reached the level of genocide, given the number of his citizens he has tortured and killed. |
In the wings, stands China, which has refused to condemn Putin’s invasion. For China, any weakness projected by the democracies of the world will be seen as an invitation to follow through on its threat to militarily seize another democracy, Taiwan. In the MENA region, it will encourage dictators like Egyptian president, ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, to continue to brutally repress any dissent of his autocratic regime. Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, will likewise feel that the co-called Islamic Republic has free rein to continue engaging in terrorist behavior in the Middle East.
The need for complete isolation of the Putin regime
If the international democratic community is serious in its commitment to international law and a stable global order, it must stop Putin in his tracks. The only way to do that is to cut Russia off from exporting its oil and natural gas. This will impose severe costs on the West. But to do nothing apart from imposing weak sanctions, the Ukraine crisis will only grow larger as Putin continues to pursue his fantasy of rebuilding the Soviet Union.
The US and Europe can strongly pressure its supposed allies in Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf to dramatically increase their output of oil. The US' strategic reserve can be sued to increase the amount of oil available to the American economy. Gasoline taxes can be temporarily lifted in the United States and Europe. Western governments can subsidize oil prices for the near term and pressure energy companies to contain price rises of oil and natural gas.
Anything less than the maximum effort to cripple the Russian economy will lead to a major defeat for Ukraine, the overthrow of its democratic government, the destruction of its cities and economic infrastructure, and a global defeat for democracy. Are the United States and its Western allies up to the task to prevent this all from happening?
