By Makau Mutua Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.Russia, once an empire known as the Soviet Union, has a long and storied history. It is a land of great contradictions. It’s been a progenitor of great culture. Literary giants have hailed from there, as have the finest musicians, artistic performers, thinkers, athletes, and scientists. Russia, under the guise of the Soviet Union, was a testing ground for Marxism-Leninism.
That, unfortunately, did not go, or end, well. The country has produced historic political figures. They’ve ranged from crazed czars to Nikita Khrushchev, the cunning peasant, to Josef Stalin, the savage dictator. But perhaps no Russian leader – ancient or modern – has been as ruthless and calculating as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Mr Putin is the textbook definition of a thug.
Mr Putin was trained in the dark arts of spy-craft. Don’t get me wrong – spying is a necessary and vital duty for any state worth its name. Spying – simply collecting intelligence, often furtively – is done even in personal relationships. When you crane your neck and try to peek at the messages your partner, or spouse, is writing on their phone, is a form of spying. It may reveal your insecurities, but that’s beside the point. States are insecure against other states, even allies. That’s why they spy on each other, and all others. Immorality and amorality is part of spying. One spy agency requires recruits to pledge they can commit any act – including adultery – for the sake of the country.
Malignant spyware
A person trained as a spy can do anything. But some spies are better humans than others. Actually, some spies are ethical, if that’s not an oxymoron. There are those that keep citizens safe from terror attacks, malignant spyware on national and global electronic, financial, and other vital infrastructure. I will embrace a spy who catches an Al-Shabaab terrorist anytime. There are other spies who don’t work for democracy, or to protect the values of a humane world, but rather seek to thwart and destroy open societies. Mr Putin is among the latter. In fact, he’s a classic product of the latter. He hates freedom, except his own, and that of his cronies. He’s a bitter little man. Dictators don’t rule, or savage others, alone. A dictatorship is an ecosystem. It’s forged in a cultural and political Petri dish of fatalism and primordialism – a primeval crudity that evacuates all sense of humanity. A dictator who was incubated as a spy, especially in the dark era of the cold war, can be extremely deadly.
That’s Mr Putin for you. Give Mr Putin one thing – he’s devoted his entire life to the Soviet Union and Russia. In an almost bipolar construction, Mr Putin both loves and hates Russians. He loves them because he wants them to capture the imagined glory of the Soviet Union, the failed colossus, but he hates them because he oppresses them in that quest. Mr Putin will do anything to aggrandise himself and his cronies. He’s reputably the richest man in the world. But he will spare no effort in projecting Russia’s power abroad. He wants to outdo the United States, but he can’t because the GDP of New York is larger than Russia’s. New York’s GDP is $1.5 trillion while that of Russia is $1.48 trillion.
Penile power
The GDP of the US is $23 trillion, 16 times that of Russia. If Russia didn’t possess weapons of mass destruction, no one would stop to think about it. Mr Putin is like a coward who feels strong only because he’s holding a loaded gun. The gun represents his penile power. Otherwise, he’s totally impotent. The most painful thing for me these last two months has been the gratuitous destruction of Ukraine by Mr Putin. It’s one of the most evil deeds I’ve witnessed. Mr Putin has wantonly killed in cold blood many, many thousands and exiled millions. These have included children, women, and men – many in their homes. These are war crimes the likes of which I can’t even fathom. Mr Putin has done so in a futile attempt to reassert Russia’s geopolitical power, but he’s failed miserably. The exact opposite has happened. He will forever be known as a war criminal. He’ll be shunned by everyone with a modicum of decency. He’s a global pariah who’s mentally ill, or he’s grossly miscalculated.
Ukraine was the second most powerful republic in the former Soviet Union after Russia. It held one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. But it gave it up upon becoming independent from the Soviet Union. It’s a sad fact that had Ukraine retained its nuclear weaponry, Russia would never – never – have attacked it. The lesson here is that countries can only be safe if they develop, or acquire, nuclear weapons. Mr Putin, an evil monster, has taken the world closer to nuclear Armageddon by so viciously and savagely attacking a country that has done nothing wrong against Russia, except pursue democracy and alliances which are its right as a sovereign republic.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He’s chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.
That, unfortunately, did not go, or end, well. The country has produced historic political figures. They’ve ranged from crazed czars to Nikita Khrushchev, the cunning peasant, to Josef Stalin, the savage dictator. But perhaps no Russian leader – ancient or modern – has been as ruthless and calculating as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Mr Putin is the textbook definition of a thug.
Mr Putin was trained in the dark arts of spy-craft. Don’t get me wrong – spying is a necessary and vital duty for any state worth its name. Spying – simply collecting intelligence, often furtively – is done even in personal relationships. When you crane your neck and try to peek at the messages your partner, or spouse, is writing on their phone, is a form of spying. It may reveal your insecurities, but that’s beside the point. States are insecure against other states, even allies. That’s why they spy on each other, and all others. Immorality and amorality is part of spying. One spy agency requires recruits to pledge they can commit any act – including adultery – for the sake of the country.
Malignant spyware
A person trained as a spy can do anything. But some spies are better humans than others. Actually, some spies are ethical, if that’s not an oxymoron. There are those that keep citizens safe from terror attacks, malignant spyware on national and global electronic, financial, and other vital infrastructure. I will embrace a spy who catches an Al-Shabaab terrorist anytime. There are other spies who don’t work for democracy, or to protect the values of a humane world, but rather seek to thwart and destroy open societies. Mr Putin is among the latter. In fact, he’s a classic product of the latter. He hates freedom, except his own, and that of his cronies. He’s a bitter little man. Dictators don’t rule, or savage others, alone. A dictatorship is an ecosystem. It’s forged in a cultural and political Petri dish of fatalism and primordialism – a primeval crudity that evacuates all sense of humanity. A dictator who was incubated as a spy, especially in the dark era of the cold war, can be extremely deadly.
That’s Mr Putin for you. Give Mr Putin one thing – he’s devoted his entire life to the Soviet Union and Russia. In an almost bipolar construction, Mr Putin both loves and hates Russians. He loves them because he wants them to capture the imagined glory of the Soviet Union, the failed colossus, but he hates them because he oppresses them in that quest. Mr Putin will do anything to aggrandise himself and his cronies. He’s reputably the richest man in the world. But he will spare no effort in projecting Russia’s power abroad. He wants to outdo the United States, but he can’t because the GDP of New York is larger than Russia’s. New York’s GDP is $1.5 trillion while that of Russia is $1.48 trillion.
Penile power
The GDP of the US is $23 trillion, 16 times that of Russia. If Russia didn’t possess weapons of mass destruction, no one would stop to think about it. Mr Putin is like a coward who feels strong only because he’s holding a loaded gun. The gun represents his penile power. Otherwise, he’s totally impotent. The most painful thing for me these last two months has been the gratuitous destruction of Ukraine by Mr Putin. It’s one of the most evil deeds I’ve witnessed. Mr Putin has wantonly killed in cold blood many, many thousands and exiled millions. These have included children, women, and men – many in their homes. These are war crimes the likes of which I can’t even fathom. Mr Putin has done so in a futile attempt to reassert Russia’s geopolitical power, but he’s failed miserably. The exact opposite has happened. He will forever be known as a war criminal. He’ll be shunned by everyone with a modicum of decency. He’s a global pariah who’s mentally ill, or he’s grossly miscalculated.
Ukraine was the second most powerful republic in the former Soviet Union after Russia. It held one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. But it gave it up upon becoming independent from the Soviet Union. It’s a sad fact that had Ukraine retained its nuclear weaponry, Russia would never – never – have attacked it. The lesson here is that countries can only be safe if they develop, or acquire, nuclear weapons. Mr Putin, an evil monster, has taken the world closer to nuclear Armageddon by so viciously and savagely attacking a country that has done nothing wrong against Russia, except pursue democracy and alliances which are its right as a sovereign republic.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He’s chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.
Source: Sunday Nation tomorrow.
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