Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end for Putin and his friends

5 a.m. local time in Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, 2022, the moment the Russian military launched its unprovoked, all-out invasion of Europe’s largest country, marking the the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin.

The attack, even within its first few hours, took place Heavy damage in Ukraine and its people, will also be seen as a turning point in the careers of Vladimir Putin’s supporters from the oligarchs now scrambling to keep their superyachts from being seized. American political leaders are skeptical who since 2016 has delivered a chorus of celebration and defense of the Russian president.

Despite his past crimes and abuses, Putin has somehow managed for two decades to be seen as something less than the threat he actually poses. He was largely accepted on the charts of the world’s elite, even after he murdered and imprisoned those who criticized him, steal great fortune from the Russian people. He said in 2007 Munich Security Conference and effectively rejected the post-World War II international order… and the invitations kept coming. After he placed the order 2008 Georgia InvasionHe received a slap on the wrist from the international community, but maintained his role when he attended international summits and hosted dignitaries.

Putin hosted the Olympics in 2014, just before invading Ukraine for the first time and taking Crimea. That cost him The perks of the G7 Summit but he is still received by world leaders and business magnates as if he were a top citizen of the world in good standing.

Pascal Le Segretain / Getty

Putin started and beamed as Russia hosted the FIFA World Cup which started in June 2018. Despite the US intelligence community unanimously concluded Putin interfered in the 2016 US election, in the midst of the World Cup festivities, Putin hosted a delegation of Republican Senators on July 4, 2018. Less than two weeks later, he met the President of the United States who he was clearly looking to help the elected person — Donald Trump — in Helsinki. Here meetingTrump flattered the Russian leader, and when asked if he trusted Putin or his own intelligence community about the election, Trump reverently said, “President Putin said that must be Russia. I don’t understand why that is. “Senator John McCain” called it a “disgraceful performance” and said, “No previous president has ever brought himself down worse than before a tyrant.”

America’s leaders are not alone in succumbing to Putin’s manipulation and the corrupt empire of businesses he controls… and once gaining influence around the globe. Former German officials, led by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and leading German businessmen Flocking to work for companies close to Putin. Other European leaders have followed suit in major energy companies like Lukoil and Gazprom. Poisoning enemies, throwing them off balconies, or imprisoning them are not enough to diminish Putin’s standing.

Just this week, former President Trump praised Putin for “genius”. Fox News broadcast Speaking Russian indicates their loyal audience, that is, gullible audiences all over America. A month ago, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Putin “talented”, “informed” and a “politician”.

For many years, Putin was the last wolf in sheep’s clothing. He was known as an enemy of democracy, a brutal dictator, and one of the world top kleptocrat (that could make him the richest man in the world.) But whether it’s money or the hope that Putin will use his power to help them or their cause, world leaders The world turned to him. In many Western countries, Putin has used that to his advantage, publicize religious movements supported his anti-internationalist, anti-NATO, anti-Western agenda not only in the US but also in the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Balkans. He and his oligarch friends supported the word groups N OUT arrive Brexit move. Honestly, when it comes to sheep’s clothing, he hardly needs a sweater.

In fact, he has become brave enough to do as he did in Munich in 2007 and tell the world over and over again who he really is. At the club’s last meeting for global insiders, the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos just last year, Putin warns of similarity between today’s global situation and that of the 1930s. “Today, such a heated global conflict is, in principle, impossible. But, I repeat, the situation can develop in an unpredictable and uncontrollable manner”.

In one long article published last July, Putin gave his stance on Ukraine. He begins by saying that Russians and Ukrainians are “a single whole”. He then offers his erroneous view of the two nations’ histories, a journey through his mind rather than the past, and concludes, “I am convinced that Ukraine’s true sovereignty only possible in partnership with Russia.”

However, as the current crisis began, which is the prevailing view of the Russian leader, few believed that Putin, despite past invasions, would do something as bold as attacking. a gratuitous European neighbor, based on a transparent fabric of lies, regardless of the consequences for the Ukrainian people or, frankly, the cost to its own military or citizens. In recent days, as the US government has shared intelligence that sheds light on Putin’s intentions, it has been seen by some as a provocation by the US rather than an insight into his goals. The most dangerous man in the world.

Within hours, the scales had fallen from the eyes of the world. He showed us who he was and we refused to believe him. For some, it’s because he doesn’t fit their preconceptions about the nature of the modern world. For others, it’s more of a choice, they believe what they want to believe. They see Putin has advanced their interests.

UKRAINE-CRISIS / EAST-FRONTLINE

GLEB GARANICH / REUTERS

Now, he is mentioned let’s roll was the last to break the peace of Europe, Adolf Hitler. Putin, again, even supports this analogy when he uses the same lies to justify the invasion of Ukraine that Hitler used to justify entering the Sudetenland in 1938. ( Hitler lied that the German Sudeten were being persecuted by the Czechs, Putin said so of the Russians in Ukraine.)

The attack on Ukraine does not equate to cutting off part of Georgia. It’s not even like taking Crimea. It was an act of aggression on a scale neither Europe nor the world had witnessed in eight decades. It came, thanks to Putin’s amnesiac neo-tsarist conviction explaining his actions on Monday night, along with a warning that his vision of Russia included other nations that had been part of the Russian empire. It is enhanced by a threat so heavy and brutish that it could have been dismissed if it hadn’t come from the man who controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal: “Whoever tries to interfere on us, and even more, to pose a threat to our country, for our people, know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to consequences. which you have never experienced in your history”.

The Putin of Davos cocktail parties, who has presented himself as another world leader, a man as admirable as he should be feared for his cunning and merciless use of power. his concession, is dead. He was buried in the debris of the first rocket that landed in Ukraine.

Putin will now be seen as the biggest threat in the near future to peace facing the world. The man who thought he could exploit the division he helped sow in the West, has now united it. NATO’s forward deployments in the countries he threatens will not be withdrawn anytime soon. NATO, what has passed?, has once again found purpose containing Putin. The Europeans who flirted with Russia, will no longer do so. Europe will eventually start to turn away so that it is no longer dependent on Russian energy.

Putin’s opponents in Russia will be empowered. That country’s pro-democracy movement, like the one in places like neighboring Belarus whose leader Alexander Lukashenko, playing a loyalist role to Putin, is at the helm of the current offensive, will be add strength. His oligarchic friends will pay a heavy price and if Western sanctions are deep enough and long enough, they will become disgruntled with their association with capo di tutti capi. Russian economy, already weakwould also be affected if such sanctions were maintained and, if possible, deepened.

The almost accidental inexperienced president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has enhanced by this attack and his role to date in standing up to that. His speech, addressed to his people and to the people of Russia, was a powerful one, the most humane speech any leader has delivered during this crisis. The support his people will receive from the West will exceed what was thought possible in previous days. It is now understood that the Ukrainian people are fighting for the rule of law, democracy and world order. If they suffer premature defeat, the movement to restore what the Russians are trying to take from them will have a long list of donors and active supporters from across Europe, the US and beyond. all over the world. And every victory they have won in any stage of this conflict will not be seen as a defeat of Russian forces but of Putin himself.

Even Putin supporters in the West will realize that their embrace of Putin will be their act of undoing. Pictures will emerge of Russian atrocities. Putin will be condemned as a war criminal. Fox News and Trump will no longer be able to sparkle “both sides” of the Russia-Ukraine conflict or minimize the manifest human ugliness that the 45th president of the United States has sought to embrace.

Ultimately, all of these factors will contribute to Putin’s downfall, increase his vulnerability to domestic challenges, isolate him and ultimately destroy him. We should not minimize the damage he will suffer because he, already an old man, is trying to recreate his lost dream of youth, trying to bend the world to his vision. his wrong view. He will not come down easily and he will bring many people with him.

But if history is any guide, his overreach and miscalculations, his weaknesses as a strategist and flaws in his character, will delete him. And, if there is justice in the world, if the people of the United States and Europe take notice, they will also serve to remove Putin supporters abroad who have supported this monster and ignored profound danger to us all he embodies.