Photograph Source: Sami Rautiainen from Vantaa, Finland – CC BY 2.0
Donald Trump’s attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump is dividing the Western alliance, and undermining Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion. His actions may prolong the war by convincing Putin he can manipulate Trump into a deal with concessions he couldn’t win on the battlefield.
Trump is cozying up to Vladimir Putin – so, who is Putin?
Putin is a former Soviet spy who spent 16 years in the KGB, where he learned how to manipulate people by playing on their egos, greed and fears. After the end of the Cold War, Putin was named head of the FSB, Russia’s post-KGB intelligence agency. In 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister, becoming president when former President Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin has ruled Russia ever since.
At the heart of Putin’s rule are two forces: corruption and violence.
As Russia’s new leader, Putin, who is now believed to be one of the wealthiest people on earth, consolidated power at home by reining in Russia’s powerful oligarchs. He offered them a simple deal: If they granted him absolute power and shared the spoils, he would let them steal as much as they wanted from the Russian people. The result: while the vast majority of the Russian population struggles economically, Putin and his fellow oligarchs stashed trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens. In the process, Putin crushed Russia’s brief movement toward democracy. He eliminated rivals, cracked down on freedom of speech, and strangled the free media. Political dissidents, investigative journalists, and opposition leaders started turning up dead.
Today, 26 years after he took power, Putin is the absolute ruler of Russia. Russian elections are blatantly fraudulent, with Putin’s lackeys barely hiding their ballot-stuffing. In the last sham election, Putin won 88 percent of the “vote” against carefully screened opposition candidates.
That is Putin’s Russia. There is no freedom of speech. Protests are violently suppressed. Tens of thousands of people are in imprisoned for speaking out against his rule. The bravest and most prominent dissidents – people like Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Magnitsky – are murdered outright. And the billionaire oligarchs become even richer.
That is the leader Trump defends and admires.
But it’s not just repression at home. Putin has also engaged in four brutal wars: in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine (twice). In Chechnya, his forces targeted civilians and medical personnel, flattening entire cities. Against Georgia, he launched an unprovoked invasion and annexed 20 percent the country. In Syria, Russian aircraft bombed schools, hospitals and crowded markets, killing thousands of civilians to prop up the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad. And in Ukraine, Putin has invaded twice, first in 2014 and then again in 2022.
Right now, Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. Because of Putin’s invasion, over one million people have been killed or injured. Every single day, Russia rains down hundreds of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities. Putin’s forces have massacred civilians and kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children, bringing them back to Russian “re-education” camps. These atrocities led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 as a war criminal.
Putin has also directly attacked the United States and its allies, repeatedly hacking our computer systems, attempting to sabotage critical infrastructure, meddling in our elections and harassing our diplomats.
That is Donald Trump’s new best friend, Vladimir Putin.
Every American – regardless of his or her political views – should see the current reality clearly. For the first time in American history, we have a president who is prepared to turn his back on our democratic allies and democratic values to align himself with one of the world’s most brutal dictators.
For 250 years, people all over the world have looked to the United States, the longest existing democracy on earth, as a source of inspiration. In many countries, democratic leaders have studied our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution for guidance as to how to form governments of the people, by the people, and for the people. In this difficult historical moment, we cannot let them down. More importantly, we cannot let ourselves down. We cannot turn our backs on democracy and our own history.
We must not allow authoritarians and oligarchs to rule the world.
Source: Counter Punch
