The current narrative in the West is to portray Putin as a megalomaniacal despot who has sacrificed all hopes of peace and goodwill on earth. If history started on the first day of the invasion, their assessments would be true. If History started with the fall of the Berlin wall, there may be another answer and if history started in the year 1 AD, then Putin is right to say the Rus people are one with the Russian people with the centre of power of the Rus moving from Kiev to Moscow sometime in the Middle Ages.
What came to mind recently is Joe Clark’s recollection of a visit to the Duma in Russia, where his host Eduard Shevardnadze points to the debate and says “… see, they want a tsar”. About thirty years later they have one. The development of Tzar Putin is likely not instantaneous. My take would be that the triggering event was NATO searching for purpose after the disintegration of the USSR. This, coupled with the US not getting a penalty for taunting, has led the world to the current circumstance. Russia suffered from the same loss of self-image as the US did after Vietnam. Putin implemented the Reagan playbook, just shifted a couple of decades. To use an analogy, Russia’s earliest interventions in the Asian Republics is akin to the US’ first action using the “Munroe Doctrine” to invade Granada. This list of Russian incursions certainly has outnumbered the US, though they have all been within their own region, i.e. ex-Soviet republics. The end goal it seems is the reconstitution of the old USSR.
Putin’s playbook is right out of The Prince. Machiavelli’s advice is not to worry about injustice, as you have to accept that not all entities you deal with play by these principles of justice. To possess the “virtue” of pragmatism is all important and I am certain he sees the West as not being a good faith partner. The framing of the current conflict is democratic versus authoritarian state structures. Of course, the definition of democracy varies across the globe. Is the US a model democratic state? Is China a model authoritarian state? If you took an unbiased analysis, used all the “peer reviewed” material published, you would not arrive at a definitive conclusion. When this test fails, you then go to the Rule of Law argument, i.e. the west lives by the Rule of Law whereas these authoritarian labelled states do not.
Within any sovereign nation, laws are enacted by legislatures or the sovereign. That nation has the right to coercive enforcement of those laws. Internationally, there are “conventions” based on agreements that roughly equate to international law. There is no institution that can enforce these conventions, other than a powerful nation using its coercive power over other nations to enforce that convention.
For all the claims of being Rule of Law countries in the West, under what “international” convention can the seizure of private property be justified? To many, it feels good to seize the yachts of Russian oligarchs. There are now attempts to dispose of seized properties and use it for “good”. In the case of Ukraine, proceeds will be used to support relief programs. Is there an international convention that makes this legal? The seizure request of the yacht in Fiji by the US is an example of this. A few countries got together and used their power to pirate assets of Russian citizens just because they didn’t oppose their government. Do we hold this as a shining example of Rule of Law?
I have no delusions regarding the “niceness” of Vladimir Putin, though I wonder if he is a Frankenstein monster creation of the west. At the same time, I do not question his rationality. As pointed out earlier, it is a pragmatic implementation of Machiavellian prescriptions. What concerns me is it comes at a time when we need to tackle the real existential crisis of climate change. If the west holds the Ukrainian invasion as the top priority for the globe, then the populace should quit bitching about the price of gasoline. Another outcome is potential starvation from the inability to provide grains from Russia and Ukraine and yes, your loaf of bread will cost you more, yet another pesky thing to bitch about while Ukraine burns.
