Vladimir Putin is a criminally insane kleptocrat. He has been enabled in his nefarious deeds by a variety of self-serving sycophants. Many of these amassed fortunes in ways that have consistently worked to the detriment of the Russian people. And now that Putin has engaged in war crimes against an emergent democracy, his enablers are losing access to their bank accounts, they are having their yachts seized, and they are being targeted for criminal prosecution.
Unfortunately, the free world has failed at times to differentiate between the rank and file Russian people and the egomaniacal tyrants that have, by arbitrary assumption, occupied leadership positions in former Soviet states. On December the 25th in 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. And yet, due to the ineptitude of the United Nation’s Office of Legal Counsel, Russia illegitimately occupied the former Soviet’s permanent member seat on the UN Security Council.
As Russia used its misbegotten veto power to cripple emergent democracies around the globe, it retarded societal evolution. Even though the Soviet Union ceased to exist, though the once captive socialist “republics” became independent nations functioning as emergent democracies, the anti-democracy government of Putin wielded power that was unjustified by any coherent analysis. In light of this, it’s hard to believe the United Nations is poised to remain relevant as it puts forth a variety of meaningless and toothless resolutions.
The interests of world peace are not well served by vacillating politicians. We’ve all seen them, proactively straddling the fence or deliberately staking out firm positions somewhere between wishy and washy. On the question of democracy versus autocracy, we’ve heard them say “democracy is not all it’s cracked up to be.” And yet, they are unable to articulate any vision for the future that they’re willing to share with the general population. That is because they’ve sold out to oligarchs whose values are so abhorrent, they must operate under the cover of darkness.
Obvious solutions are ignored by incumbent politicians as well as the press. They lament the news blackout in Russia while failing to deploy an array of Radio Liberty transmitters along that country’s borders. They complain about Russia’s veto on the UN Security Council while failing to challenge it’s illegitimate permanent member status. They have their followers backbiting someone they’ve labeled as the enemy while encouraging constituents to run from something seen as the centermost bone of contention at the heart of their petty grievances.
Still, we must ask why anyone would favor autocracy unless they are somehow intent on fleecing the public. We willfully tolerate such ineptitude at the commanding heights. Although, the Russian people have no apparent alternative due to the misinformation through state media together with the inaction of those who once made effective use of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe.
We are left with the slim hope there are officials, within the Russian military, that maintain some affinity with, and loyalty to, the Russian people. Such officials undoubtedly see through the feigned concern Vladimir Putin has for ordinary Russians. They must realize that, in the final analysis, the only thing Putin has ever done for Russia is to retard its progress while siphoning off any equities it once held. Because of Putin and his unmitigated selfishness, the country is now saddled with crushing sanctions and an insurmountable debt to Ukraine and the rest of the world.
Any future lifting of sanctions should not occur without an equitable formula for war reparations to Ukraine. And any consideration for such relief should be contingent upon the Russian people arresting Putin and delivering him to the International Criminal Court to stand trial for war crimes. Putin should become the enduring example, for all kleptocrats and kleptocrat wannabes, that the people of the world will no longer tolerate deceptive practices by those seeking to deprive others of their livelihoods, their possessions, and their other fundamental rights.
Beyond the commonly articulated and delineated rights, every person on earth has a divinely bestowed right to be the arbiter of their own destiny, and to associate for an altruistic purpose. Humanity has a duty to protect such benefactors and we should make a concerted effort to insure their work continues unimpeded. The Putin-like caballers fear exposure above all else. Their main enemies, in addition to physical light, are intellectual insight and spirit luminosity. Therefore they moved quickly to block social media and general access to the Internet.
Radios however are widely available. The failure to array frequency agile Radio Liberty broadcast transmitters along Russia’s borders suggests an embarrassing ineptitude. So does the UN intransigence with respect to denying Russia veto power. High officials have shown they cannot be trusted to even read the UN Charter and discover that non-Soviet Russia never was a permanent member of the Security Council. Unless the Charter is hopelessly defective, they could at least devise a method to remove those countries operating in ways that are antithetical to the organization’s cardinal precepts or, in the case of Putin’s Russia, are actively engaged in war crimes.