The Putin Problem – Opinion

During almost 15 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonized the West while rebuilding Russia’s military, largely with oil and gas revenues from customers in Europe.

Masha Gessen, a Russian – American journalist and democrat, noted in Slate (July 23): “The enemy against which (Putin’s Russia) has united is the West and its contemporary values, which are seen as threatening Russia and its traditional values. It is a war of civilizations … Russia is … protecting not just itself and local Russian speakers but the world from the spread of what they call ‘homosfascism’ by which they mean an insistence on the universality of human rights.”

In her book, Hard Choices, Hillary Clinton notes with the realism of hindsight: “Putin’s worldview is shaped by his admiration for the powerful czars of Russian history … (he) proved over time to be … autocratic, resenting criticism and eventually cracking down on dissent and debate, including from a free press and NGOs … Among the most egregious … were attacks on the press … between 2000 and 2009 nearly 20 journalists were killed in Russia, and in only one case was the killer convicted.”

One was the much admired writer, Anna Politkovskaya, murdered at her home in Moscow on Putin’s birthday in 2006. She had repeatedly warned her readers and the world about what she called Putin’s “bloody” leadership, insisting that his regime was corrupt, brutal and represented the worst demons of the Soviet past.

Leaders of democratic governments finally appear to ‘get’ Mr. Putin. Stephen Harper, who did so early on, is expanding Canada’s sanctions to include the Ukrainian rebels, Russian energy companies, banks and arms makers. The U.K.’s Prime Minister David Cameron is siding with the E.U. on Putin instead of the Euro – skeptics, but should now sanction smartly the Russian oligarchs living in London. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel finally seems ready to impose longer – term sanctions.

In August, the E.U., U.S. and Canada approved dramatically stronger economic sanctions to pressure Putin to end support for rebels in Ukraine. But more than sanctions are necessary. Ukraine needs much assistance and will for some time. The German experience with integrating East Germany will be helpful to encouraging an economic boom in Ukraine in two or three years. To help fund it, the West should become serious about finding and seizing the billions of dollars former president Viktor Yanukovych stole from the country. NATO should buy the war ships built in France for Putin.

Putin’s renewed shelling of eastern Ukraine from Russia appears aimed at achieving control of a large swath of the country and to make transition to democracy difficult. Sanctions are unlikely to work well now because the Russian nationalism unleashed by Putin seems likely to trump all economic considerations, no matter how much ordinary Russians and 150 or so oligarchs might suffer.

Ukraine could prove to be a domino in central – east Europe, illustrating again that unless tyrants are confronted early and forcefully they become much worse.

A viable NATO strategy for deterrence and if necessary response to aggression is needed now, argues Andrew Michta, director of the Warsaw branch of the German Marshall Fund. He adds that a new containment strategy has risks, but will “offer Russia a chance to rebuild its relations with the West down the line.”

Michta is correct.