A true adherence to the spirit of Merdeka would mean complete freedom from fear and threats and autonomy to dictate our own policies in securing our interests and sovereignty.
A true adherence to the spirit of Merdeka would mean complete freedom from fear and threats and autonomy to dictate our own policies in securing our interests and sovereignty.
The reality is that we have been largely at the mercy of external demands that require our acceptance of some form of adherence and quid pro quo in exchange for assurances, and to meet urgent internal needs.
Changes in our foreign policy orientation from being pro-west to nonalignment and maintaining the stance of centrality, has produced some mixed results as well as dwindling prospects.
Our current entrenched dependence on China reflects the vulnerability of our future resilience and the limited options and openings available to exercise our interests.
The enticing lure of easy capital and the relatively easy requirements for capital and resource inflow result in the start of a perfect storm in trading our future strategic interests for urgent current needs, politically or otherwise.
Growing sentiment locally, especially among the Malaysian Chinese populace, of equating criticism of China to the west’s containment efforts has created a cycle of ignorance of the risks involved.
This yearning to affiliate with Beijing has resulted in dangerous and risky overtures and blind acceptance of all the narratives churned out by Beijing to the detriment of our principles and values.
Many have been upset by the call for greater and strategic review of our ties with China, citing the importance of Beijing to our interests and salvaging our economic lifeline. Critics, especially those from within the Malaysian Chinese community, have been accused of being unfaithful to their own roots and traitors to the cause of their community.
One of the arguments is that China is our neighbour and is here to stay, at least geographically, and that we have no choice but to preserve our current status quo for long-term stability.
But we Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, have no obligation or duty to pander to any foreign player’s intention and agenda, irrespective of historical affiliation. Especially not given China’s incursions into our airspace, constant coercive tactics in disputed waters and increased propaganda.
We definitely are unable to choose our neighbours, but we are in control of ensuring that our long-term security and interests are secure. We have to welcome – but discreetly – western counterbalance measures in military and security.
Our own policymakers are deeply aware of the current predicament – of keeping the status quo in ensuring our short-term goals are met at the potential expense to our long-term interests – but alas, their hands are tied by prevailing circumstances.
But we should not forget our patriotic duty to the sovereignty of the nation. This Merdeka Day, we should reaffirm our non-negotiable and unshakeable faith and commitment to our beloved country.
Happy Merdeka, Malaysia.
Collins Chong is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
Pelosi’s trip is used as the needed pretext for Beijing to initiate the greater strategic and bellicose actions in forcing Taiwan’s hands with starker threats and deterrence.
The fierce responses are intended to intimidate and to provide direct threat and coercive tactics to force Taipei to face the harsh reality that Beijing will remain fully in control of its fate, and that Washington can only do so much in periodical and limited terms.
The largest military drills with firing of missiles and incursions of more than 100 planes are all geared as preparatory drills and tests for potential blockade and invasion, using this platform as the most useful avenue in testing the capacities to execute the full invasion option.
Aggressive methods will be deemed as the new status quo, pivoting away from the sustained but controlled pressuring and grey zone tactics used, as can be seen in the decision for the drills to remain in place.
It remains irresponsible and provocative for Beijing to take this countermeasure disproportionately, in responding to the visit. It will only heighten the risks of missteps and miscalculations, which will then be galvanised by Beijing in pinning the blame on Washington as the first provocateur and justifying its moral and sovereign card in future potential fall-out.
The six zones assigned are also meant to be a strong message to Taipei that Beijing’s military might and invasion capacity is not confined to the Taiwan Strait alone.
It signals the start of the intention by Beijing to justify its new norms of greater bellicose actions in cutting off Taiwan from the rest of the world, using means of intimidation, coercions and direct deterrence.
By using Pelosi’s trip as the persistent pretense, it now gives Beijing freer hands to mount a more comprehensive and greater options on the table to exert considerable force and other cards in strengthening control and grip over Taipei.
The responses are also needed as a timely distraction from the current internal crises of economic and financial squeezes and the discontent on the Covid-zero policy, and to galvanise national resolve by the reliance on growing patriotism and nationalist sentiments of the people.
It risks backfiring on the future stability with unyielding hypernationalism will risk overheating and creating a different challenge and demand which will be a challenge for the CCP to bear.
Ties with other countries will be affected by the forceful public intention and demand, although so far it has been used as a positive card in giving national credence to the actions by Beijing in its competition with Washington.
The recent call between Xi and Biden reinforced the sentiment and public demand card, with Xi highlighting the call for reunification with Taiwan is the wish of the more than 1.4billion Chinese people and warning Biden not to play with fire.
Xi needs the unequivocal responses both to meet internal demand at the public and party levels, in riding out a difficult year for him personally in managing his crises and to cement his leadership grip in the party Convention come this Fall.
Greater options on the table remain on Xi’s hands after his leadership consolidation, where a full scale island invasion or greater assertive moves in the region in the future will be justified by Beijing, in tracing the roots of the causes to this ,among others, and will pin blame on the Americans as the provocateurs.
The dangerous and new tactical game played by Beijing risks greater backfiring, with Washington and the containment team now having higher moral card in justifying their counter-responses and in cementing their ironclad commitment in defending the international law and norms established, besides raising greater realisation and support in the framework and cause of defending the ideals of rules-based order and democracy in opposing autocracy and the mantra of might is right.
Beijing has justified its actions as needed based on the provocations by the US and accusing Washington with the intent to change the status quo and in using the Taiwan card in its containment and encirclement of China.
Beijing has also furiously and steadfastly asserted that it was the US which has been undermining the international adherence to national sovereignty and territorial integrity by instigating the Taiwan card, notwithstanding the fact that the People’s Republic of China has always maintained that Taiwan remains an inseparable part of the PRC and that it has always been the ultimate red line.
As hypocritical a stance as it can be, Beijing has continuously undermined the rules-based order through its sustained provocative and dangerous actions in the region and beyond, disregarding the genuine concerns and rights of the affected states in protecting their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
All actions that are deemed to threaten the strategies and interests of Beijing are seen as the containment efforts from the West,and framed as anti China narratives.
From incursions to other states’ EEZ to downright coercive tactics in claiming territories, the states on this end of the pressure and threats by Beijing remain persistently under-equipped to defend their own national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Washington has also repeatedly assured Beijing that it has no intention to change the status quo and will stick to the agreed policy, a point further reinforced by Taiwanese Premier Tsai-ing wen herself together with Pelosi during their joint press conference in Taipei, further reinforced by the constant and consistent same message from the White House.
For Beijing to act dangerously in response to this trip will then be seen as an act of unnecessary escalation and confrontation with provocations to change the stakes at play.
The missiles fired during these drills last weekend also fell on the EEZ of Japan, prompting strong diplomatic responses and rebuke from Tokyo and Washington as well as other concerned parties.
The targeting of Japan’s EEZ also sends a two-pronged message; underlining the ability and readiness for China to push Japan into the game over Taiwan with its target capacity and as an indirect threat and deterrence to Tokyo in keeping out of its internal affairs in dealing with Taiwan.
By capitalising on this systemic imbalance in power parity, Beijing continues to up the ante and to widen the gap by galvanising other tactical tool of using economic interdependence and risky capital ties to further push the impacted states to the level of subdued responses through this divide and conquer strategy.
These also include increasing depth in measures of influencing other states’ internal affairs through various channels from media influence to political interference as has been accused by Canberra and Taipei and other states, as well as espionage in various forms including cyber in providing Beijing with critical advantage in its long term strategies of both soft and hard power projections.
Great success has been attained, with dominant sways and prevailing anti-West narratives in higher levels of platforms and openings in painting the picture of US-China rivalry.
Other players have been practising restraint in avoiding escalation and worsening tensions in this saga, resorting to diplomatic engagement and protests and playing their part in toning down the risks of miscalculations from the intense pressuring and sabre-rattling methods by Beijing.
China should play its part as a matured player in the region in realising the impact and reorienting its strategies of using these hard-hitting responses to Pelosi’s visit as its tactical and strategic advantage in the medium range game, which will risk greater backfiring.
Ex-Defense chief: Pelosi should go to Taiwan if she wants03:21
Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
(CNN)When word filtered out that House Speaker Nancy Pelosiwas planningto visit potentiallyTaiwanas part of a congressional swing through Asia next month, it quickly turned into one of those wrenching foreign policy choices with major risks in both courses of action. Pelosi came under intense pressure, with politicians -- both Democrats and Republicans -- as well as policy strategists, alternatively warning of the risks of either going forward with the trip or canceling it.
Frida Ghitis
But is there a way out -- a path that would untangle this damned-either-way knot?
The controversy burst into the open last week after President Joe Biden all but confirmed Pelosi's trip was under consideration when he answered a reporter's question, saying "The military thinks it's not a good idea right now."
China, which considers democratic Taiwan a renegade province and likely aims to retake it at some time in the future, reacted with menacing statements. Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman warned, "Should the U.S. insist on making the visit, China will act strongly to resolutely respond to it and take countermeasures," adding, "We mean what we say."
China has been raising the temperature of its threats. An article in the Communist Party's Global Times cited unnamed experts saying Pelosi's visit would be a "strategic level provocation," warning the response would be, "not only military but also strategic."
During a more than two-hour call between Biden and President Xi Jinping on Thursday, Chinese officials claim Xi warned, "If you play with fire, you get burned."
Is Xi bluffing? Only he knows.
What's fascinating about this high-stakes showdown is that before she came down with Covid-19 last spring, Pelosi was planning to visit Taiwan in April. China had denounced the trip, but the reaction didn't include the fuming fury visible now. There's something about the timing of the visit that has raised hackles in Beijing. And by Beijing, we mean Xi.
China commentator warns of 'shocking military response' if Pelosi visits Taiwan 03:04
And that's where the answer to this conundrum may lie.
All of this is happening ahead of a key event expected to be held this November. Not the US midterms, but the Chinese Party Congress, when Xi is expected to be formally named for an unprecedented third term as the country's leader. (The constitution was amended in 2018 to allow him to potentially serve indefinitely.)
This is the perfect time for Xi to take on the United States, to show the Chinese people how he's unafraid to challenge Washington, DC. A confrontation with the US could swell Chinese nationalism, already primed with anti-American sentiment, and distract from the country's internal problems.
The fact is that a visit by Pelosi now would give Xi the opportunity to bolster his credentials by leading the country in nationalist fervor amid a confrontation with the US.
The dilemma is clear: If Pelosi backs down, allowing China's threats to prevail, it could embolden Beijing -- making the US look weak and Taiwan look vulnerable. If she doesn't, there's a risk of confrontation. China has been increasingly willing to stake its claims through military means in recent years.
Pelosi herself has suggested the Pentagon is worried the Chinese could attack her plane. What would happen if they attempt to interfere with her flight?
The world is on a knife's edge already, with a raging war in Ukraine. The last thing anyone needs is another military conflict. But a small spat -- which could easily escalate -- could still serve Xi's purposes.
For what it's worth, during today's call Xi and Biden reportedly agreed to manage their differences responsibly.
The White House said that Biden told Xi that "the US 'strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," reminding him that a visit by Pelosi would not signify a change in US policy.
Pelosi, while still not unveiling her plans, reaffirmed a few days ago her long-held commitment to Taiwan, one of Asia's most vibrant democracies and one that remains under ever-increasing threat from Beijing. "I think that it's important for us to show support for Taiwan," she said.
Allowing Taiwan to continue charting its own course has been one of the subtexts of international support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's invasion. The parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, two democracies claimed by much larger, powerful and ever more aggressive neighbors, is striking. Beijing has been watching Western support for Ukraine, and the West has been watching Beijing, pondering what lessons it is learning from Russia's experience.
That's why a message of solidarity with Taiwan is important. That's why a usually-divided Washington has maintained bipartisan backing for Taipei, and why the Biden administration has given muscular support to Taiwan. In the past few months, the US has boosted weapons sales, increased naval patrols and given diplomatic backing, including with other visits from US officials.
Biden has gone as far as declaring three times that the US would come to Taiwan's defense if China attacks. The statements marked a departure from Washington's policy of "strategic ambiguity," which leaves the question unanswered, and could be interpreted as putting in doubt Washington's "One China" policy. That policy maintains that, in US eyes, the government in Beijing is the sole government of China, without recognizing Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) as a separate country.
There's no perfect solution to this dilemma. The closest to one would be an announcement that Pelosi will definitely go to Taiwan, but will do it later, perhaps next year, when the November party Congress has passed; when Xi has less to prove; when a visit by a House leader can reassure the people of Taiwan that the US values, respects and will help the defend their democracy, and can say it in person, without lending a hand to Xi.
Putin’s end goal isn’t Ukraine but western civilization – the hatred for which he lapped up in the black milk he drank from the KGB’s teat
This article is more than 4 months old
VladimirSorokin
Sun 27 Feb 2022 07.14 GMT
‘For Putin, life itself has always been a special operation.’ Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/ANSA/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock
On 24 February, the armor of the “enlightened autocrat” that had housed Vladimir Putin for the previous 20 years cracked and fell to pieces. The world saw a monster – crazed in its desires and ruthless in its decisions. The monster had grown gradually, gaining strength from year to year, marinating in its own absolute authority, imperial aggression, hatred for western democracy, and malice fueled by the resentment engendered by the fall of the USSR. Now, Europe will have to deal, not with the former Putin, but the new Putin who has cast aside his mask of “business partnership” and “peaceful collaboration”. There shall never again be peace with him. How and why has this come to pass?
In the final film of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Frodo Baggins has to throw into the seething lava the cursed Ring of Power, the ring which has brought so much suffering and war to the inhabitants of Middle Earth, he suddenly decides to keep it for himself. And, by the will of the ring, his face suddenly begins to change, becoming evil and sinister. The Ring of Power had taken total possession of him. Even so, in Tolkien’s book, there’s a happy ending …
When Putin was put on the throne of Russian power by an ailing Boris Yeltsin in 1999, his face was rather sympathetic, attractive even – and his rhetoric was entirely sound. It seemed to many that the man ascending the heights of the Russian pyramid of power was an intelligent official devoid of pride and arrogance and a modern individual who understood that post-Soviet Russia had only one possible path into the future: democracy. He talked about democracy quite a bit in his interviews back then, promising the citizens of the Russian Federation continued reforms, free elections, freedom of speech, the observance of human rights by the authorities, cooperation with the west, and, most importantly, a constant rotation of those in power.
“I have no intention of holding on to this chair!” he said.
Vladimir Putin was put on the throne of Russian power by an ailing Boris Yeltsin in 1999. Photograph: AP
In Russia, as everyone knows, people still believe in the words and appearances woven by their rulers. And, back then, this man was “an individual pleasant in every respect”, as Nikolai Gogol wrote of his protagonist in Dead Souls: open to discussion, seeking to understand everyone, serious, but not devoid of humor or even the ability to make fun of himself.
Furthermore, certain politicians, intellectuals, and political theorists who are now fierce opponents of Putin and his system, supported him, some of them even passing through the doors of his campaign headquarters to help him win the coming elections. And he did. But the fatal Ring of Russian Power was already on his finger and doing its insidious work; an imperial monster began to take the place of this handsome, lively individual.
In Russia, power is a pyramid. This pyramid was built by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century – an ambitious, brutal tsar overrun by paranoia and a great many other vices. With the help of his personal army – the oprichnina – he cruelly and bloodily divided the Russian state into power and people, friend and foe, and the gap between them became the deepest of moats. His friendship with the Golden Horde convinced him that the only way to rule the hugeness of Russia was by becoming an occupier of this enormous zone. The occupying power had to be strong, cruel, unpredictable and incomprehensible to the people. The people should have no choice but to obey and worship it. And a single person sits at the peak of this dark pyramid, a single person possessing absolute power and a right to all.
Paradoxically, the principle of Russian power hasn’t even remotely changed in the last five centuries. I consider this to be our country’s main tragedy. Our medieval pyramid has stood tall for all that time, its surface changing, but never its fundamental form. And it’s always been a single Russian ruler sitting at its peak: Pyotr I, Nicholas II, Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov … Today, Putin has been sitting at its peak for more than 20 years. Having broken his promise, he clutches on to his chair with all his might. The Pyramid of Power poisons the ruler with absolute authority. It shoots archaic, medieval vibrations into the ruler and his retinue, seeming to say: “you are the masters of a country whose integrity can only be maintained by violence and cruelty; be as opaque as I am, as cruel and unpredictable, everything is allowed to you, you must call forth shock and awe in your population, the people must not understand you, but they must fear you.”
Judging by recent events, the idea of restoring the Russian Empire has entirely taken possession of Putin
Judging by recent events, the idea of restoring the Russian Empire has entirely taken possession of Putin.
Alas, Yeltsin, who came to power on the crest of the wave of perestroika, did not destroy the pyramid’s medieval form; he simply refurbished its surface: instead of gloomy Soviet concrete, it became colorful and was covered over with billboards advertising western goods. The Pyramid of Power exacerbated Yeltsin’s worst traits: he became rude, a bully and an alcoholic. His face turned into a heavy, motionless mask of impudent arrogance. Toward the end of his reign, Yeltsin unleashed a senseless war on to Chechnya when it decided to secede from the Russian Federation. The pyramid built by Ivan the Terrible had succeeded in awakening the imperialist even in Yeltsin, only a short-lived democrat; as a Russian tsar, he sent tanks and bombers into Chechnya, dooming the Chechen people to death and suffering.
Yeltsin and the other creators of perestroika surrounding him not only didn’t destroy the vicious Pyramid of Power, they didn’t bury their Soviet past either – unlike the post-war Germans who buried the corpse of their nazism in the 1950s. The corpse of this monster, which had annihilated tens of millions of its own citizens and thrown its country back 70 years into the past, was propped up in a corner: it’ll rot on its own, they thought. But it turned out not to be dead.
After coming to power, Putin began to change. And those who initially welcomed his reign gradually understood that these changes didn’t bode well for Russia. The TV channel NTV was destroyed, other channels began to pass into the hands of Putin’s comrades-in-arms, after which a regime of strict censorship came into effect; from that point forward, Putin was beyond criticism.
The flags of TVC Channel, Channel One and NTV Channel at the Ostankino TV Center. Photograph: Artyom Geodakyan/TASS
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the richest and most successful company in Russia, was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years. His company Yukos was looted by Putin’s friends. This “special operation” was designed to intimidate the other oligarchs. And it did: some of them left the country, but the rest swore allegiance to Putin, some of them even becoming his “coin purses”.
The Pyramid of Power was vibrating and its vibrations stopped time. Like a huge iceberg, the country was floating through the past – first its Soviet past, then only its medieval past.
Putin declared that the collapse of the USSR was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. For all clear-headed Soviet people, its collapse had been a blessing; it was impossible to find a single family unscathed by the red wheel of Stalinist repressions. Millions were annihilated. Tens of millions were poisoned by the fumes of communism – an unattainable goal requiring moral and physical sacrifices by Soviet citizens. But Putin didn’t manage to outgrow the KGB officer inside of him, the officer who’d been taught that the USSR was the greatest hope for the progress of mankind and that the west was an enemy capable only of corruption. Launching his time machine into the past, it was as if he were returning to his Soviet youth, during which he’d been so comfortable. He gradually forced all his subjects to return there as well.
The perversity of the Pyramid of Power lies in the fact that he who sits at its peak broadcasts his psychosomatic condition to the country’s entire population
The perversity of the Pyramid of Power lies in the fact that he who sits at its peak broadcasts his psychosomatic condition to the country’s entire population. The ideology of Putinism is quite eclectic; in it, respect for the Soviet lies side by side with feudal ethics, Lenin sharing a bed with Tsarist Russia and Russian Orthodox Christianity.
Putin’s favorite philosopher is Ivan Ilyin – a monarchist, Russian nationalist, anti-Semite, and ideologist of the White movement who was expelled by Lenin from Soviet Russia in 1922 and ended his life in exile. When Hitler came to power in Germany, Ilyin congratulated him hotly for “bringing the Bolshevization of Germany to a halt.
“I categorically refuse to evaluate the events of the last three months in Germany from the perspective of German Jews … The liberal-democratic hypnosis of non-resistance has been cast off …” he wrote. However, when Hitler declared the Slavs to be a second-class race, Ilyin was offended and the Gestapo soon took him into custody for the criticisms he’d begun to level. He was then rescued by Sergei Rachmaninov, after which he left for Switzerland.
In his articles, Ilyin hoped that, after the fall of Bolshevism, Russia would have its own great führer, who would bring the country up from its knees. Indeed, “Russia rising from its knees” is the preferred slogan of Putin and of his Putinists. It was also taking his cue from Ilyin that he spoke contemptuously of a Ukrainian state “created by Lenin”. In fact, the independent Ukraine was not created by Lenin, but by the Central Rada in January 1918, immediately after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by Lenin. This state arose because of Lenin’s aggression, but not thanks to his efforts. Ilyin was convinced that if, after the Bolsheviks, the authorities in Russia were “[to become] anti-national and anti-state, obsequious toward foreigners, [to dismember] the country, [to become] patriotically unprincipled, not exclusively protecting the interests of the great Russian nation without any regard for whorish Lesser Russians [Ukrainians], to whom Lenin gave statehood, then the revolution [would] not end, but enter its new phase of perishing from western decadence.”
“Under Putin, Russia has gotten up from its knees!” his supporters often chant. Someone once joked: the country got up from its knees, but quickly got down onto all fours: corruption, authoritarianism, bureaucratic arbitrariness and poverty. Now we might add another: war.
A lot has happened in the last 20 years. The president of the Russian Federation’s face has turned into an impenetrable mask, radiating cruelty, anger, and discontent. His main instrument of communication has become lies – lies small and big, naively superficial and highly structured, lies he seems to believe himself and lies he doesn’t. Russians are already accustomed to their president’s lie-filled rhetoric. But, now, he’s also inured Europeans to those lies. Yet another head of a European country flies to the Kremlin so as to listen through their traditional portion of fantastical lies (now at an enormous, totally paranoid table), to nod their head, to say that “the dialogue turned out to be fairly constructive” at a press conference, then to just fly away.
Angela Merkel admitted that, in her opinion, Putin lives in his own fantasy land. If that’s so, what’s the point of seriously engaging with such a ruler? He’s not a writer or an artist; he has to live in the real world and be responsible for every single one of his words. For 16 years, Merkel, who grew up in the GDR and should therefore understand Putin’s true nature, “has established a dialogue”. The results of that dialogue: the seizure of certain territories in Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, the capture of the DPR and LPR, and now a full-scale war with Ukraine. After the war with Georgia and the seizure of its territories, the “peacemaker” Obama offered Putin … a reset of their relations! Which is to say, c’mon, Vladimir, let’s forget all of that and start from scratch. The result of that “reset” was the annexation of Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine.
Barack Obama meets with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 7 July 2009. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters
Putin’s inner monster wasn’t just brought up by our Pyramid of Power and the corrupt Russian elite, to whom Putin, like the tsar to the satraps, throws fat, juicy bits of corruption from his table.
It was also cultivated by the approval of irresponsible western politicians, cynical businessmen and corrupt journalists and political scientists.
“A strong and consistent ruler!” This bewitched them. “A new Russian tsar” was, for them, something like Russian vodka and caviar: invigorating!
During this period of time, I met many admirers of Putin in Germany, from taxi drivers to businessmen and professors. One aged participant in the student revolution of ’68 confessed:
“I really like your Putin!”
“And why exactly is that?”
“He’s strong. Tells the truth. And he’s against America. Not like the slugs we’ve got here.”
“And it doesn’t bother you that, in Russia, there’s monstrous corruption, there are practically no elections or independent courts, the opposition is being destroyed, the provinces are impoverished, Nemtsov was murdered, and TV’s become propaganda?”
“No. Those are your internal affairs. If Russians accept all of that and don’t protest, that must mean they like Putin.”
Ironclad logic. The experience of Germany in the 30s didn’t seem to have taught such Europeans anything.
But I hope most Europeans aren’t like that. That they know the difference between democracy and dictatorship – between war and peace. In his lie-filled address, Putin called the attack on Ukraine a “military special operation” against “Ukrainian aggressors”. Which is to say: the peace-loving Russia first annexed Crimea from the “Ukrainian junta”, then unleashed a hybrid war in eastern Ukraine, and is now attacking the whole country. Pretty much exactly like Stalin with Finland in 1939.
Now, one thing has become clear: with this war, Putin has crossed a line – a red line
For Putin, life itself has always been a special operation. From the black order of the KGB, he learned not only contempt for “normal” people, always a form of expendable matter for the Soviet Moloch-state, but also the Chekist’s main principle: not a single word of truth. Everything must be hidden away, classified. His personal life, relatives, habits – everything has always been hidden, overgrown with rumors and speculation.
Now, one thing has become clear: with this war, Putin has crossed a line – a red line. The mask is off, the armor of the “enlightened autocrat” has cracked. Now, all westerners who sympathize with the “strong Russian tsar” have to shut up and realize that a full-scale war is being unleashed in 21st century Europe. The aggressor is Putin’s Russia. It will bring nothing but death and destruction to Europe. This war was unleashed by a man corrupted by absolute power, who, in his madness, has decided to redraw the map of our world. If you listen to Putin’s speech announcing a “special operation”, America and Nato are mentioned more than Ukraine. Let us also recall his recent “ultimatum” to Nato. As such, his goal isn’t Ukraine, but western civilization, the hatred for which he lapped up in the black milk he drank from the KGB’s teat.
Who’s to blame? Us. Russians. And we’ll now have to bear this guilt until Putin’s regime collapses. For it surely will collapse and the attack on a free Ukraine is the beginning of the end.
Putinism is doomed because it’s an enemy of freedom and an enemy of democracy. People have finally understood this today. He attacked a free and democratic country precisely because it is a free and democratic country. But he’s the one who is doomed because the world of freedom and democracy is far bigger than his dark and gloomy lair. Doomed because what he wants is a new Middle Ages, corruption, lies and trampling on human freedoms. Because he is the past. And we must do everything in our power to make this monster remain there – in the past – for all time, together with his Pyramid of Power.
Vladimir Sorokin has written numerous novels, plays, short stories and film scripts. His novels Telluria and Their Four Hearts, translated by Max Lawton, will be published this year
