A number of comments have appeared on this blog, some from long-standing commentators, that offer utterly bizarre apologies for the behaviour of Putin on Ukraine.
Let's be clear, I am no lover of the government in Ukraine. It is deeply flawed. I am also well aware of the far-right in Ukraine. Nor, come to that, do I think Ukraine should be in NATO and the refusal to rule that out makes no sense and should have been offered to Putin, because we should not want a country like Ukraine in NATO.
But to pretend that Putin is in any way innocent is not just bizarre; it is stupid, wrong and frankly indicative of a mindset I do not want to be associated with this blog.
Russia is a profoundly corrupt, fascist kleptocracy and no apology for its actions can be offered here by anyone who wants to keep commenting here. That is a first and final warning, and I really do not care how many comments you have made to date: that is the rule and I will be applying it.
And if you want to know why I will refer to a real expert on this, Prof Tim Snyder. He has been talking about Ukraine:
This interview is well worth watching.
And then note this tweet by Snyder:
Then read the blog he links in that, here.
Then stop posting nonsense please, because I will not tolerate it. The situation is too serious for that.
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Sir Keir Starmer has today in Parliament called for the banning of Russia Today. Do you agree with that call Richard?
I have long declined to do RT
The Alex Salmond show has been run independently but right now I am disengaging from that too
OK Richard – it’s your blog.
Speaking for myself I hope that I have never come across as a Putin excuser. All I have ever sought to ascertain is the West’s role in the creation of Putin and his rule.
Why? Only because from reading history and all of Tim Snyder’s books the prospect of these Ukrainian lands being subject to death and cruelty again make me really upset and frightened. And angry.
It could have been all so different.
Thank you for the Snyder link BTW. He looks as though he has been really ill. I was bit shocked to see him. The bit where he warns about Putin’s negation of Ukrainian sovereignty leading to violence and desolation was really chilling.
Finally, one of the things Snyder has said consistently about authoritarian regimes and their leaders is understanding what drives them and working on those.
I’ll leave it at that if I may.
That’s fair
I was also a bit shocked by how unwell he looked
Thanks for those links, Richard. Timothy Snyder talking and writing good sense is a refreshing experience amidst so much ahistorical, ‘non-sense’.
Putin’s speech, essay and the bizarre psycho-drama of that Supreme ‘Council’ meeting – complete with their master, drumming impatient dictatorial fingers on his desk – are the stuff of derangement. The entire show, right down to the accusatory positioning of the lectern (check out the statuary behind it) at which the minions were required to be examined by their ‘tsar’, was jaw-dropping in its revelation of a man (to quote John Rohl writing on Kaiser William) “not right in the head”. The evidence that here we have an all-powerful leader obsessed by a fantasy of historical victimhood is deeply disturbing, and can only recall – ironically – the rants of his country’s greatest destroyer. It is hard not to be afraid of anyone so unmoored from reality.
Timothy Snyder gave this lecture entitled “Ukraine: A Normal Country” four days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oRUfQA6efY
It is mainly about the history of Ukraine but he goes right up to today. The lecture lasts about an hour and the Q&A lasts about half an hour.
I will take a look
What strikes me are the parallels , though not identical, between the Trump MAGA narrative and the Putin narrative. Both promise to restore a past which is mythical. Myths are often more deeply imbedded than truths. Both draw on a sense of resentment -in Russia , the events of the the fall of the USSR, the transition to capitalism and looting of assets. In the US insecure employment, stagnant wages , lack of proper health system et.al.
in either case is there any sense of discussion. As Nigel points out above, the Master separate from the courtiers who all voice their support.
I have just finished a book on Allan Brooke, who was Chief of Imperial General staff , in WW2. He spent much of his time arguing with Churchill who thought himself a great strategist -and wasn’t. But to his credit, he would follow Brooke’s advice. In the Kremlin, there seems no one who performs that task. There wasn’t enough in Trump’s White House. At least, Boris Johnson can be held to account in the Commons, if perhaps not enough. Democracy might be messy but it is better than the alternatives .
Nobody ever thought it would be easy both opposing Putin’s corrupt control of Russia and disagreements on the West’s response to the crisis in Ukraine. But the notion of what Russian people want is largely missed. Here is a worthwhile talk at Yale by a professor who is both a thorn in Putin’s side and familiar to Americans.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7Ng75e5gQ&feature=youtu.be
I can understand – and indeed share – the sense of outrage at recent events. I agree with the view of Putin put forward above by Nigel Mace, and believe that his actions at this time are grounded in Russian politics and Russian emotionalism, rather than a wish to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. That said, the failure to implement the Minsk accords is largely the fault of Ukraine and the West.
So the situation of Ukraine, of Russia and Ukraine, of the West and Ukraine-Russia is more complicated than indignant gestures will disentangle. As well as the acute studies by Professor Snyder, can I recommend this ? –
https://ccisf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Krasno-Analysis-Matlock-Ukraine-Dec.-2021-1.pdf
Thanks for that article ardj. It is a useful addition to the matters being discussed here.
Most of all it is good to see the emphasis in that piece on realism in the face of understandably contesting narratives – and what that may contribute to achieveing settlement or, at the very least, a drawing back – on all sides – from the brutal idiocy of armed violence and of reciprocal economic destruction. Surveying the all too obviously fragile political egos and the intemperate language – especially, alas in Westminster – a period of reflection, if not of silence, could be welcome.
(The numbskull historic bragging of Johnson’s Defence Minister should really have earned him the sack – or at least George Wallace’s crushing put-down of Gen. Curtis LeMay.)
Meanwhile, as so often in this unhappy time in history, I turn to R P Lister’s verse for reconciliation with ‘men and ‘events’. His “Field of Dynamite” (in his volume “The Idle Demon”) keeps it steadying warning in my head; would that it would do so with others.
“For still a tiny spark may blow us from our beds,
And fling us to the Pleiades, where we shall lose our heads.
Long is the night and chilly, and we have got the cramp,
But still we do not light a fire, and still we dare not stamp.”
Synder’s book “The Road to Unfreedom” details his views on Russia and its relationship with Ukraine, Europe and the US.
The way to pressure Putin is not through grand economic sanctions but by affecting his personal relationships. When wealthy Russians can no longer live in London or other European cities, their children are excluded from private education and the benefits of living in a western world are curtailed then Putin will com under pressure from his backers. It’s possible he would use his FSB connections to resist them but it wouldn’t be pleasant for him.
Agreed
There was a very very good twitter post by a Finnish leftist putting things into context (Putin/Russia). I found myself nodding in agreement.:
https://twitter.com/jmkorhonen/status/1496047631969234944?s=21
he notes that it now starts to look as if Putin would like to have Russian borders as of 1914.
Now posted here.
Thank you.