Everyone needs a piece of Russian President Vladimir Putin . Vera Chernukha, defiant among the ruins of her village in northeastern Ukraine, curses him every morning . She wants to see him spinning in his coffin, tormented, unwrinkled, and damned for all eternity. We can say that Chernukha speaks for his people, if not for the entire Western world.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to arrest Putin for war crimes, alleging mass kidnappings of children. Wagner’s rebel mercenaries briefly wanted to overthrow his regime – and seriously weakened it. Heroic opposition leader Alexei Navalny just wants him to shut up. He was forced to listen to the same Putin speech in prison every day for more than 100 days.
Nearly 18 months after his invasion of Ukraine , a catastrophe entirely of his own making, the hated, ridiculed, ostracized and cursed Putin, utterly indifferent to the suffering he causes, has become, in various ways, the most wanted man in the world — and, perhaps the most dangerous.
Putin personifies Russia’s international isolation and growing spiritual degradation. Like a demon, a hobgoblin or a kraken from ancient folklore, he has become a global ghost or scarecrow – a monstrous, nightmarish figure that personifies evil. Putinism is a graph depicting the arc of modern morality. Zero on the scale is him.
Western-centric exaggeration? Maybe. Presumably, more Russians approve of Putin than disapprove, just as their misguided ancestors adored Stalin when he killed millions. Many of Donald Trump’s mafia Maga applaud him. And the Kremlin claims that after the Wagner panic, Putin was received in Dagestan as “striking” as a rock star.
Big deal. And generally fake news.
Even before Ukraine, few in the world loved or trusted this smirking, mean-spirited former KGB thug. Respected him as the leader of Russia? Certainly. Tolerated or feared him, yes. But admired him personally? No. A paranoid, friendless Putin is to charisma what a slug is to salad. And now he is a huge, dangerous responsibility of Russia.
The president’s three troubled trips abroad this year dramatize the loneliness of the trucker tyrant. The first meeting, held the following month in South Africa to meet other BRICS leaders, was abruptly canceled last week, causing public humiliation.
Putin was not invited because, as an ICC member state, South Africa is required by law to enforce the court’s arrest warrant. The Kremlin wanted to go further, insisting that it had diplomatic immunity. But Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said international law must take precedence .
Putin once traveled the world like any other national leader. But that was before Litvinenko’s murder. Since then it’s been downhill
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, has fallen for a hook of his own making. “Neutral” South Africa refuses to condemn Putin’s invasion. However, he is accused of smuggling weapons to Russia. Opponents say the ruling party has been skewed by monetary donations from Kremlin-linked oligarchs. The government faced legal action to force him to comply with the ICC.
So Ramaphosa relented, telling Putin to stay at home. According to him, his arrest would be “a declaration of war.” Piffl. That would be a loud proclamation of the law. Ramaphosa has lost his place in history.
Putin’s personal poisonous cloud could also infect Turkey if a visit to Ankara takes place next month . Turkey is a member of NATO, with which, according to Putin, Russia is at war. Yet its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appears to be more interested in cheap Russian gas than in notions of Western unity and solidarity with Kiev.
Erdogan poses as a peacemaker, which justifies Putin’s invitation. But Russia’s immoral disruption last week of a UN-backed Black Sea grain export deal that Turkey helped broker makes him look like a useful idiot. Intentionally or not, Erdogan is “normalizing” Putin, giving him a chance to play a statesman, push back Kyiv and divide NATO.
Putin once traveled the world like any other national leader. He met with George W. Bush at the White House, toured Europe and paid a state visit to the UK in 2003. But that was before the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, the numerous additional killings of Putin’s critics at home and abroad, and the 2008 invasion of Georgia. Since then everything has gone downhill.
As his ghost-ghost image grew, so did Putin’s international acceptability. Since February last year, only Iran, Belarus and some former Soviet republics (plus adored Dagestan) have been honored with his presence. In April, he briefly traveled to occupied Ukraine , but this was strictly not by invitation.
Putin’s ominous presence is still felt in the gallery of villains of the forgotten countries. A vivid example of this is the Syrian regime of war criminal Bashar al-Assad. Last week’s EU summit with the countries of Latin America was almost derailed due to the reluctance of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela to condemn Putin . Tellingly, the North Korean Kim Jong-un, a real outcast, thinks of him as the world .
But how much longer will the Russians tolerate this evil, incompetent, exiled man who causes them such terrible reputational, economic and human harm? Wagner’s revolt spoke of a deeper malady in the Russian soul. How low must they all fall, what depths must they dive in order for Putin to avoid defeat and oblivion?
Chinese President Xi Jinping is sure to ask himself these questions as he prepares to welcome Putin to Beijing in October. Perhaps Xi is already regretting the “borderless” partnership negotiated before Ukraine. Since then, China has faced its own big challenges, most notably an economic downturn. The destruction of the myth about Putin’s leader alarmed Beijing.
The last thing Xi wants right now is a needy global outcast knocking on his door looking for solace, weapons and help. Perhaps unlike many others, Xi doesn’t want a piece of Putin. Perhaps, on the contrary, he wants to get rid of him – and will be happy with a less dangerous, more predictable replacement.
Will Xi do everyone a favor and help the Russians exorcise the ghost? This is an intriguing, encouraging thought.
Source: The Guardian
