Who is Putin?

Image: The New Yorker

Who is Putin and what can we expect? Is Putin the source of all evil? I have collected a couple of views for you to consider. The first is a long, yet insightful and entertaining discussion featuring my favorite modern Russian scholar, Mark Galeotti. The 2nd is a short synopsis of the views of a scholar from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tatiana Stanovaya.

July 18, 2022 - Today’s New York Times guest opinion by scholar Tatiana Stanovaya encapsulates her 2 decades of study of Putin in the title of her article, Putin Thinks He’s Winning. According to the scholar, Putin has three goals which Ms. Stanovaya creatively sees as fitting together like a charming matryoshka doll - the Matryoshka Doll Theory?

In summary - here is Ms. Stanovaya’s theory.

1st, Take control of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Check! Almost.

2nd, Take Kyiv and Russify Ukraine. Not so easy.

At first, Putin expected to take Kyiv in the early days of the War. Drat! That didn’t go as quickly or effectively as he expected. Those pesky Ukrainians resisted and showed a resolve he did not predict. No worries. Putin has shifted his expectations and sees this as a longer goal. Ukraine will understandably get so tired of this War, Putin will make sure that the innocent civilians suffer - bomb maternity wards, destroy apartments buildings and wedding halls, evacuate Ukrainian children to Russia. Use of assorted war crimes are the preferred military strategy. So, Kyiv will have to accept Putin’s demands and they will accept a Russification of the country. Putin likes to call it the ‘Deukrainianization” of Ukraine. Charming. Rename streets and towns (how about Putingrad?), rewrite history, get rid of those nasty nationalists, make Russian the only language of trade, and be sure that the Russian view of education and culture prevails. Nifty! It has been reported that Russian authorities are ordering that everything painted blue and yellow (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) be removed or changed. Ukrainians in occupied lands have been given Russian passports. The Ukrainian government will be replaced with pro-Kremlin toadies and any cooperation with the West will be limited to whatever the Kremlin says is OK.

3rd, Build a new world order. The Putinmare. (Get it? Putin and nightmare combined. Just a little humor. Sorry...)

Of course, Putin’s evil Oberhauser persona, wants a new world order. Really? Yes, really. Putin sees the West (especially the immoral Americans) as the archenemy. According to Ms. Stanovaya, Putin predicts that there is a future for a “good West” that will conduct friendly business relations with Russia. Putin favors those amenable leaders like himself, including Viktor Orban in Hungary. Even America’s Fox News’ Tucker Carlson loves Orban and his modified election laws to favor his party and that he has curbed freedom of the press, passed anti-LGBTQ laws, and waged a war against immigration. Putin also likes Marine Le Pen in France, and of course, Donald Trump - all of whom are willing patsies to overlook Putin’s bad behavior and support ways of weakening democracy. Putin is pretty sure that high inflation and high energy prices will support the ‘good West people’ and make the electorate rise up against those old fashioned leaders who fight for democratic institutions.

According to the Stanovaya, “There is some good news. The very fact that the plan seems realistic to him (Putin) should, in the short term, prevent any nuclear escalation. But the bad news is that sooner or later, Mr. Putin will face reality. It is in that moment, when his plans are stymied and his disappointment high, that he is likely to be most dangerous.”

Boris Bondarev, Russian United Nations Diplomat

May 24, 2022: "My name is Boris Bondarev, in the MFA (Minister of Foreign Affairs) of Russian since 2002, since 2019 until now - Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the UN Office at Geneva.

For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year.

The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country.

Those who conceived this war want only one thing - to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity. To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.

I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.

Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system. In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many my colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons!

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country.

Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.

I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years. The Ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy."

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This simple eloquent renunciation of Putin and the Foreign Ministry is a clarion call to all Russians. Bondarev -not a name most of us know - is stationed in Geneva, as a member of the Russian Foreign Mission to the United Nations. He has been quietly doing his job for the last 22 years working for the Russian Foreign Ministry and is happy and honored to be assigned to his position in Geneva. So, why give up his cushy career with the Russian government? Because the war is a crime, the Russian aggressors want power and wealth more than the well being of its citizens, and the purveyors of war are isolating and humiliating Russia. That’s why.

According to the New York Times, “The Kremlin has gone to extraordinary lengths to silence dissent on the war. On state television, the war’s opponents are regularly branded as traitors. A law signed by Mr. Putin in March punishes “false information” about the war — potentially defined as anything that contradicts the government line — with as much as 15 years in prison. Partly as a result, virtually no government official had spoken out publicly against the invasion until Mr. Bondarev’s resignation.”

What bravery! This is the ultimate sacrifice and honor to stand up to power. Dedicated to the precepts of the United Nations, Mr. Bondarev bravely has set the bar for all Russian workers. For that matter, he sets an example to all government and political leaders throughout the world.

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Biden: Cold War Warrior Armed for 2022 war

Biden Leadership

The world holds its breath as two warriors of the Cold War face off.

Did Donald Trump’s words and actions influence whether the Russian president invaded Ukraine? Did he have any impact on how prepared Ukraine would be at the time of invasion?

History will judge. In another century, history writes that Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement empowered Hitler to attack Poland and then march across Europe. Winston Churchill said of Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

Putin was pleased to see Americans increasingly politically and socially divided under President Trump, assured that America’s discord would weaken the country making it unable to reunite in a resolve to fight against Russian aggression. Putin is no friend of the United States. The day he invaded Ukraine on February 24th, Putin said, “the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the United States in its own image and likeness is in its entirety, [an] ‘empire of lies’ … As for our country, after the disintegration of the USSR, [the United States and Europe] immediately tried to put the final squeeze on us, finish us off, and utterly destroy us.”

Fortunately, Joseph Biden is president of the United States.  Biden, an elected statesman for half a century, has more foreign policy experience than any other president in U.S. history - 3 times more experience than George H.W. Bush, who had the next longest.  When Biden entered the Senate in 1973 Leonid Brezhnev was First Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Followed by Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev. Biden has experience dealing with Soviet trained dictators, including Vladimir Putin. 

The peace of the world is in the balance as two bulls of the Cold War face off. In the shadow of the most perilous war to break out since World War II, President Biden is well qualified to help the United States and its allies.

Foreign leaders and press are relieved and impressed by Biden’s leadership against Putin and Russia. London based The Economist wrote in March, “Mr Biden’s administration’s response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been prompter, bolder and more effective than even the most faithful Atlanticist could have predicted. Nato is united behind American leadership and pushing the boundaries of collective defence.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote, “President Biden has displayed great leadership, consulting and convening allies, exposing the lie that America’s commitment to Europe is somehow diminished.”

The Japan Times editorial on March 4, 2022 wrote, “The West, and virtually the entire world, has united to oppose the invasion of Ukraine. While many leaders deserve credit for helping to forge this coalition, a good deal of the credit goes to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has demonstrated remarkable acuity in handling this crisis.”

The editorial continued, “The speed with which all parties agreed on sanctions and the severity of those measures is an example of the success of Biden’s strategy….These achievements are even more impressive given the damage that his predecessor Donald Trump did to U.S. alliances, multilateralism and the rules-based order. The most important lesson of the last week has been that international cooperation and coordinated action in pursuit of shared values and principles are essential to the survival of that order and to the peace and security it creates.”

And article concluded, “The protection of national interests is best achieved through cooperative actions, not myopic or narrowly defined nationalism. And throughout the crisis, Biden has focused attention on where it belongs. He has applauded the heroism and resilience of the Ukrainian people and condemned Putin for his aggression. He has not made it about himself or put himself at the center of the unfolding crisis. For 70 years, the world has looked to the U.S. for leadership in international crises.… there remains a critical need for leadership, albeit leadership of a new kind. The world is fortunate to have Biden in the White House as it grapples with a world in transition.”

Joseph Biden, NATO, and the world face a very different and difficult conflict with Russia. Unable or unwilling to send troops into Ukraine, most of the world is sending military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. According to the Ukraine Support Tracker, “the U.S. is the largest supporter of Ukraine, with the equivalent of 7.6 billion euros since the outbreak of war (data as of March 27, 2022). All EU countries combined total 2.9 billion euros, plus 1.4 billion euros from EU institutions and 2 billion euros from the European Investment Bank. The UK, Canada and Japan have pledged a combined 1 billion euros worth of aid.”

This massive amount of aid is in addition to impositions of severe sanctions trageting Russia’s trade, companies, individuals and their financial sector. The European Union (EU) and the UK alone account for around 40% of Russia’s trade in goods and services. “Russia is a major exporter of energy and industrial metals, and Russia and Ukraine together supply over 25 percent of world exports of wheat. Europe is particularly dependent on Russian energy, with 47 percent of natural gas and 25 percent of oil imported from Russia. Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Tur- key import over 75 percent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, and many countries in the Middle East and Africa rely on imports of wheat and other com- modities from Russia and Ukraine, which could lead to food insecurity.”

On the other hand, sanctions placed on Russia are expected to have a significant impact on Russia’s economy. “The World Bank forecasts that on the basis of sanctions announced in March 2022, by the end of 2022, Russia’s GDP will be 11% lower, investment 17% lower, inflation will rise to 22%, and exports and imports will fall by 31% and 35% respectively” Western allies are expecting that these sanctions will also impact Russia’s ability to wage war, in large part because many of Russian imports are for technology needed for military weapons.

Great Putin Disciples

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal

The Great Putin Disciples: Trump and the Far Right, how much harm have they caused?

Let me be clear. Vladimir Putin and the Russians are to blame for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Yet, to what degree do the American Far Right and Donald Trump share the guilt?

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson parrots Putin’s defense of Russia and, worse, blames Ukraine for Russia’s aggression on Ukraine. Speaking of American sanctions against Russia, Carlson said, “No American government had ever done anything like that before.” RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, quoted Carlson and wrote that “the average U.S. citizen is simply horrified by what is happening.” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on the Russian owned television station RT, “We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media…only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view.”

Far Right politician, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) said: “Remember that Zelensky is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.” Not one to worry about sounding pro-Putin, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on March 15: “NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them.” Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, supported by Trump, said on Feb. 19: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

According to Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies Russian information warfare, “People are asking if the far right in the U.S. is influencing Russia or if Russia is influencing the far right, but the truth is they are influencing each other.”

Trump says he admires Putin’s control of the annoying media, holding onto power, and admits that winning as more important than good governing.

March 2022, Trump said during an interview, “This is genius…Putin declares [a large portion of Ukraine] as independent. Oh, that's wonderful!" Immediately after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Trump said, “Putin’s taking over a country for two dollars' worth of sanctions." Trump told a crowd at Mar-a-Lago, "I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country -- really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in."

In 2014, Trump praised Putin for occupying Crimea, a region of Ukraine.  He said that Putin did “an amazing job of taking the mantle.”

And then, Trump supported Putin’s campaign against Western Europe and the organizations structured to keep Europe safe from Russian aggression. Trump said NATO was "obsolete," and threatened to withdraw the United States from it. NATO is an organization designed after World War II to protect Europe from Russian aggression. 

Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton in late February 2022, appeared on Newsmax and told the host that it was “not accurate to say that Trump’s behavior somehow deterred the Russians…I think one of the reasons that Putin did not move (to invade Ukraine) during Trump’s term in office was he saw the President’s hostility of NATO. Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him, and thought, maybe in a second term, Trump would make good on his desire to get out of NATO, and then it would just ease Putin’s path just that much more.”

Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly said that stopping Trump from exiting NATO was one of his most difficult tasks as chief of staff.

In March 2022, Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and former senior adviser of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign said, "There's just a lot of evidence that Trump was wrong on this issue [Ukraine] and that in many ways, we undermined the NATO alliance and we undermined Zelenskyy's position in the eyes of Russia and Putin."

Also, in June 2020, Trump approved plans to withdraw troops from Germany. The Pentagon opposed Trump’s plan to remove one-third of the American force in Germany because it would compromise Europe-based defenses against Russia. Even Republican lawmakers opposed the withdrawal.

Finally, Trump weakened American military and diplomatic support for Ukraine during his administration.

Trump opposed sanctions against Russia that were in response to Russia’s 2014 aggression against Ukraine in Crimea and Donbas. John Bolton said, “In almost every case, the sanctions (against Russia) were imposed with Trump complaining about it, saying we were being too hard.”

On top of that, Trump weakened Ukraine militarily by blackmailing Ukraine, refusing to provide promised arms unless Ukraine would gather evidence against Trump’s political opponents. When Ukrainian President Zelensky asked to purchase more Javelin anti-tank missiles, Trump responded by saying, “I would like you to do us a favor, though.” John Bolton said, “Every other senior national security advisor--Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper at Defense--all of us felt that we needed to bolster Ukraine’s security and were appalled at what Trump was doing.”

Putin and his Russian troops have invaded an innocent sovereign nation and committed war crimes and inhumane acts of brutality. American conservative broadcasters and politicians relieved Russia from blame and expressed indifference to the suffering of the Ukrainians.

Video taken near Kharkiv by an American volunteering with the Ukrainian military. This is the hellscape Putin continues to create. pic.twitter.com/1vCRRNRWG1

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 23, 2022

This mass, forced deportation is approaching the scale of the mass, forced deportations of the Stalinist era https://t.co/9wmYaWO38K

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) April 23, 2022

Putin needs war

Putin needs this war.

On February 21, 2022 Putin said he never believed in an independent Ukraine. Ukrainians are Russians. It is a mistake of history that they think otherwise. Putin refers to the concept of nationalism as a “virus.”

And, Putin whined that although Russia kindly pulled Ukraine out of debt post ‘91, the mother country has been given no respect. In fact, Ukraine scoffed at Russia, electing pro-West leadership. How ungrateful! “It was striking how the Ukrainian authorities always preferred dealing with Russia in a way that ensured that they enjoy all the rights and privileges while remaining free from any obligations,” he said.

On February 24, 2022 upon sending Russian troops into Ukraine, Putin claimed he had no other choice; he must defend Russia. "If Ukraine was to join NATO it would serve as a direct threat to the security of Russia." Putin said he also had an obligation to protect Russia’s way of life from depraved Americans who “sought to destroy our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within.” 

Putin’s two speeches on February 21 and February 24 inform me that:

Putin believes:

1. Ukraine is part of Russia.

2. Ukraine is ungrateful to Russia.

3. NATO is a military threat to Russia.

4. Ukraine and the West are disrespectful of Russia - her history, culture, and values.

5. He does not like America.

Putin also thinks:

1. His popularity in Russia will rise if he fights Ukraine.

   Putin is right.

   “President Vladimir V. Putin’s approval ratings have reached levels unseen in years. 83 percent of Russians said they approved of Mr. Putin’s actions, up from 69 percent in January.” (New York Times, March 31, 2022)

   “One reason Russians still support Putin and the war in Ukraine has to do with the propaganda and disinformation being sown by the Kremlin. Last week, Putin banned the spreading of “false information” about the war — including calling it a war. He also blocked Facebook and Twitter, as well as a number of Western news outlets including the BBC, making it even harder for Russians to get outside information. And among state-sponsored media in Russia, the war is downplayed and cast as a peacekeeping mission designed to liberate Ukraine from Nazis and drug-addled dictators.” (March 11, 2022, fivethirtyeight.com)

2. Ukrainian ideas could lead Russians to revolt against Putin.

   I don’t know about that.

   But, Putin liked a Ukraine that was led by I-like-Russia leaders. Ukraine was led for much of the last 30 years by pro-Russia leadership. That record was broken as a result of the 2004 Orange Revolution and then the 2014 Maidan Protests. Both revolts led to the overthrow of Putin’s handpicked choice, Viktor Yanukovych. The Orange Revolution ended up giving a victory to the West leaning president, Viktor Yushchenko.

   Yanukovych, stuck around until he did get elected a few years later and then he amassed a fortune of $12 billion, gave all the lucrative government jobs to his friends and family, and moved Ukraine back to the I-like-Russia circle. Of course, the I-like-Russia guy also said “no” to Ukraine in the EU.

   This made the people mad, resulting in the 3 month Maidan Protests in 2014 when 28 protesters were killed. The I-like-Russia Yanukovych was forced to escape to Russia. A new president was elected who was committed to the rule of law, a state free of corruption, and an association with the European Union.

   The last straw was in 2019 when the Ukrainians overwhelmingly elected a T.V. star, Volodymyr Zelensky. This election of the I-like-the-West candidate happened even though Putin had annexed the Crimea and separated parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast in 2014, preventing around 12% of eligible voters, many Russian supporters, from participating in the election.

   The Zelensky election was bad for Putin because Zelensky wants Ukraine to become a member of the EU and he was instrumental in charging Putin’s friend, Viktor Medvedchuk with treason. That was very bad, because Viktor has a long friendship with the Kremlin - so much so that Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter.

Well, that was it! Putin knew this had to stop. He must invade Ukraine and teach her a lesson, protect Russia, protect his totalitarian rule, and defeat NATO and the United States.

And now here we are after 6 weeks of Putin’s War. His Russian troops are stalled. Putin and his soldiers are accused of war crimes for the brutal murder of women and children in Bucha and Mariupol. Ukrainians, both Russian speaking and Ukrainian speaking, are united in their resistance to the invading Russia. Both NATO and the EU are united and stronger than ever in their efforts against Russia. Putin’s ersatz allies are offended and may think that Putin has gone off the rails.

And what about those majority of Russians who support their leader? I hate to believe that most Russians believe what Putin is telling them. Unfortunately, there are Russians who look down on Ukrainians and speak of them as backward khokhol. Some Russians also believe that this war is the fault of the United States and that if America wants to wage war against Russia, almighty Russia will win. We Americans know from our last years in the Trump era how lies and propaganda from a popular news agency can form opinion. How it can feed into an underlying seething anger of an unhappy population who are poorly educated and insulated. Putin has successfully glommed onto years of Russian resentment against the United States and Ukraine.

Is it possible that the democratization of information can break through the wall of lies and propaganda built by Putin and his state run news agencies? Will young people turn against Putin and this war?

Yevhen Sverstiuk, the Ukrainian dissident who fought the Soviet government and was sent to the Gulags for it, told me in 2004, “Young people want to be free, but most do not want to be politically active. They don’t want to cause trouble. They don’t want to die for the truth. They think that the era of struggle is over and that now everyone can live the way they want to. They are happier believing lies.”

Do young Russians of 2022 want to be free and are they willing to fight for that freedom?

War is Outdated

War. We are done with that outmoded way to solve problems. Haven’t we humans evolved past invasions, bombings, and genocide? That is for history. That is for the movies. At worse, maybe some small time dictator of a little Middle Eastern, Balkan or African state will use those old fashioned tools of war. We now turn to the United Nations, International Courts, and the World Trade Organization to solve problems.

Sadly, the past is not past. War is real in 2022.

35 days ago Vladimir Putin sent the Russian troops across the border to invade Ukraine. He is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in just over a month.

Where are the rules? Why is this happening?

Human-kind is trying to end war. After 200,000 years of modern humans, we have finally evolved enough to take global efforts to stop war.

After the ‘war to end all wars,’ World War I, we made a major jump and created the League of Nations. But, like all new laws, there were too many loop holes. And peace was not permanent. World War I morphed into World War II on two sides of the globe. Then, we got really serious. We created the United Nations. That was 77 years ago. Only .0005 % of man’s history. So, you see, it is not surprising that we aren’t very good at this peace keeping thing. We are new at it.

From the ashes of the two wars in the 20th century we formed the Charter of the United Nations. We admit that the best of mankind can not develop socially, economically, or philosophically during war. Spending our best men and women on battles. Spending our wealth on invasions and military equipment. Destroying our ability to trade. Killing our babies. We can do better.

The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…
AND For these ends
to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples…

Very cool, right?

I know! I am a big fan of the United Nations and its good work.

Admittedly, the United Nations has its limitations when it comes to keeping the peace. But, it has done pretty well since World War II, hasn’t it? I know, there was the Korean War only 5 years after WW II. And then the Vietnam War. Well, I realize there is a list of wars, military maneuvers, “special military operations/denazification.” I did a Google search on the “wars of the 21st century.” Shocking! Whoa! And who is involved? The United States is doing a lot of warring in the Middle East. And the United States got help: “Eighty-four Coalition partners have committed themselves to the goal of eliminating the threat posed by ISIS and have already contributed in various capacities to the effort to combat ISIS in Iraq, Syria, and globally.” Russia has been busy - Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine. There are others: Israel and Palestine, Chad and Sudan, Macedonia, North Korea and Japan…

OK. Despite all of those battles, operations, and other euphemisms for war. And despite the development of nuclear weapons, no leader has pushed the big red button that could lead to the destruction of the world. There has been no red button pushing, despite those countries being led by some pretty crazy and self serving leaders, i.e. Mao, Khruschev, Trump, and Putin.

We are closer to eliminating war than any other time in the history of human-kind. The world wars of the 20th century as well as the development of nuclear weapons have left us with a particularly bad taste for wars. Wars are no longer small duels or skirmishes; wars can wipe out whole generations of men and a country’s culture and economy. To wage war, the positives must look like they outweigh the negatives. And the little people, not only the king, have learned that they will be fodder for the leader who is hiding in his castle untouched by bombs. Democracy is not a friend of war. The 18 year old soldier might be talked into thinking that war will bring him glory and the girls, but soon war is just death, illness, lost limbs. War doesn’t get you a job when you go home. War makes you crazy.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”

But, today there are more advocates for developing systems to insure peace. The Dalai Lama. Bishop Tutu. The European Union. Your mother. Didn’t she teach you to be kind? To solve your problems and disagreements by working through things? And, that soccer coach in high school - did she show you how to play and win with compassion?

“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.” — Yoda (“Star Wars”)

Putin’s Shame - The Carnage of People Bound by Blood

Käthe Kollwitz, Tower of Mothers 1937. Germany. Depicting mothers standing in a circle to protect their children from the horrors of war

On February 22, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “I would like to emphasise again that Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, by family ties.”

Two days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine has been an independent state for 31 years.

According to the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, Russia has destroyed over 1500 civilian structures in Ukraine in the first 29 days. 953 civilians have been killed, including 78 children. According to the New York Times, Putin’s military has destroyed 23 hospitals, 330 schools, and 900 houses and apartment buildings. Russians destoyed a maternity hospital and a theater that provided refuge to 1500 women and children.

One in every two Ukrainian children has been displaced since Russia began its invasion on February 24th, according to the UN Children's Fund. Putin’s aggression has forced nearly 4 million refugees out of the country. That is 10% of the population of 44 million. Nearly all of these refugees are women and children, as the men have stayed behind to defend their homeland.

This is how Putin treats “those dearest to us.”

This is not the first time that both men and women had to take up arms to fight Russians to protect Ukraine and their families. And sadly, it is not the first time Ukrainians were separated from their children because of the cruelty of their Russian neighbor.

In the face of oppression and violence, Ukraine has produced some very important heroes who resisted Russian aggression.

In 2004, I interviewed a number of these heroes. Sadly, we have lost many. Some were murdered, others have died of old age. But, they left a legacy of dissent.

Yevhen Sverstyuk

Kyiv. 2004.

The handsome white haired man invited us to have tea. хочете чаю, would you like tea? Yevhen’s wife came into the room, a little old lady carrying a large tray. She quietly served us tea in graceful China cups and offered us some warm biscuits. Yevhen offered us a liqueur that his wife made. “I call this Lila, after my wife. It is made from nuts, 5 kinds of herbs and 5 kinds of berries. It is her specialty,” Yevhen said.

Yevhen was a kindly man whose erudition and wisdom were palpable. During our last interview I asked, “Can I come and study with you? I could learn so much from you. About philosophy and history.” Yevhen laughed, “We might have some problems, don’t you think? Since I speak Ukrainian and you English. And wouldn’t you have a long commute from the United States?”

Yevhen died in 2014 after Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas. Before his death at 86 he spoke of the “huge social test of strength” that Ukraine was going through. “Both the struggle with the authoritarian regime and the victory of the Maidan revolution are imbued with the long familiar historical set up of foreign intervention. All of this is logical and one of the classic turns of history which is a test for all peoples in our Europe.  All of that together makes for an incredibly responsible test for the freedom and independence of Ukrainians which needs to be passed through with dignity. “

All values are still true

“The world will be reborn when new people are willing to accept the torch. It often happens in history. The cycles come and go.”

Mbfitzmahan. Yevhen Sverstyuk. 2004. Kyiv, Ukraine.

It was a great honor to spend some hours with Yevhen Sverstyuk. Shauna and I met with him three times. He was a leading Ukrainian writer, thinker, and moral leader who defied Soviet occupation and suppression.

In 1972, the Soviet government arrested him during Brezhnev’s campaign to remove dangerous Ukrainian intellectuals.

Yevhen had pushed the limits of the government since 1952. Many of his writings were disseminated in secret. The last straw was when he wrote an essay and he failed to cite Karl Marx or Lenin. “I wrote my essay as though those thinkers did not exist. My essay was seen by the prosecutor as a rejection of Soviet ideology. The KGB felt that this was hostile, but they could not say it was anti-Soviet. It was on the razor edge. I was indicted not only for what I wrote, but also because who I was. The authorities thought the book could have a bad influence, but they feared my influence more.”

I believe that Yevhen was being modest, perhaps careful. His essay speaks of the unspeakable. He looks at Ukraine as a nation separate from Russia. He writes "nationalism is a necessary stage of universal progress; the demise of a nation is as tragic for that nation as it is for the whole of mankind." (Sverstyuk Ivhen. (1976). Clandestine essays. Published by the Ukrainian Academic Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.)

Yevhen Sverstyuk was sentenced to spend 12 years in Soviet labor camps, separated from his wife and little children.

Yevhen said, “not many talk about the pain caused to families.”

“My wife is a very gentle person. She would come to see me in the concentration camp. Once she came all the way to Siberia and then was not allowed to see me. She could come only once a year. It was a very long and hard journey and she was extremely disappointed that she could not see me. Later, when I finally got to see my daughter, Veera, when she was 13 and she came to visit me in jail, she did not understand. She said, “Daddy, why is that solder here?” She saw the guard walking outside my window. It was very hard to get to know her. It was typical at that time for children not to recognize their fathers after years of incarceration. During their father’s absence, children of political prisoners had to explain where their fathers were. Some people knew where I was and others didn’t. Teachers did not ask my daughter where her father was, only the children asked her. But, she was very embarrassed.

When I got back home after all those years, one teacher gave me a written composition my son had written. He was asked to write about his number one role model, and he wrote, “My father.” The teacher knew my story and hid his paper and showed it to no one until I came home. She was afraid that the authorities would find it and my son would get in trouble. My son was older and was proud of me, but he never demonstrated his feelings. He was quiet. He was only 12 when I went to prison.

Some wives joined their husbands in exile. That was allowed only in cases where the husband was sick or the when the husband could not adjust to life by himself. For example, there is a philosopher, Vasyl Lisovy. He was in exile in eastern Siberia and his wife and two children moved there with him. I didn’t want my wife to have to live in exile with me, even if she wanted to. I was in eastern Siberia where it is a land of eternal ice. I was in camp #36.

When I came home, though, my wife and I were just as close as when I left. Just happy to be back together. And, as you see, we are still happy to be back together.”

Presciently, he said,

”Today many people live under the illusion that the world has changed to the extent that the old truths have no more value. This is a big mistake. All true values are still true. Until there are people who can carry these values, there will not be much change in the world. There will be new generations that will not carry or accept the torch from the last generations. Life then will decay. The world will be reborn when new people are willing to accept the torch. It often happens in history. The cycles come and go.”