The con-artist accuses the US of being a con-artist and, to deflect
from his own corruption and failings, he has festering historical
grievances and accusations of a relentless Western plot
PARIS — President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered Russian troops into Ukraine but made clear his true target goes beyond his neighbor to America’s “empire of lies,” and he threatened “consequences you have never faced in your history” for “anyone who tries to interfere with us.”
In another rambling speech full of festering historical grievances and accusations of a relentless Western plot against his country, Mr. Putin reminded the world on Thursday that Russia “remains one of the most powerful nuclear states” with “a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons.”
In effect, Mr. Putin’s speech, intended to justify the invasion, seemed to come closer to threatening nuclear war than any statement from a major world leader in recent decades. His immediate purpose was obvious: to head off any possible Western military move by making clear he would not hesitate to escalate.
Given Russia’s nuclear arsenal, he said, “there should be no doubt that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.” He added: “All necessary decisions have been taken in this regard.”
Mr. Putin’s move into Ukraine and his thinly veiled nuclear threat have now shattered Europe’s notions of security and the presumption of peace it has lived with for several generations. The postwar European project, which produced so much stability and prosperity, has entered a new, uncertain and confrontational stage.
Europe has rediscovered its vulnerability. Mr. Macron said on Thursday that Mr. Putin had “decided to bring about the gravest violation of peace and stability in our Europe for decades.” Of Ukrainians, he said, “Their liberty is our liberty.”
But no European country, nor the United States for that matter, will put lives on the line for that freedom. The question, then, is how they can draw a line for Mr. Putin.
After his short war in Georgia in 2008, his annexation of Crimea in 2014, his orchestration in 2014 of the military conflict in eastern Ukraine that created two breakaway regions, and his military intervention in Syria in 2015, Mr. Putin has clearly concluded that Russia’s readiness to use its armed forces to advance its strategic aims will go unanswered by the United States or its European allies.
“Russia wants insecurity in Europe because force is its trump card,” said Michel Duclos, a former French ambassador. “They never wanted a new security order, whatever the European illusions. Putin decided some time ago that confrontation with the West was his best option.”
“Nearly everywhere, in many regions of the world where the United States brought its law and order, this created bloody, unhealing wounds and the curse of international terrorism and extremism,” Mr. Putin said. America’s conduct across the globe was “con-artist behavior.”
He continued: “Therefore, one can say with good reason and confidence that the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the United States in its own image and likeness is, in its entirety, the very same ‘empire of lies.’”
He appeared to have forgotten that Ukraine once had a vast nuclear arsenal before it gave it up in 1994 under an agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum. Russia was one of the countries that signed the accord, promising in exchange that it would never use force or threats against Ukraine and would respect its sovereignty and existing borders.
A couple of points merit comment.
Putin threatens nuclear war. That arguably is apocalyptic talk. People have criticized me for raising the issue of the threat of nuclear war in the Ukraine mess. Accidents and/or mistakes sometimes happen because humans sometimes accidentally or mistakenly do stupid. Stupid includes nuclear war. Now, Putin is making explicit nuclear threats. Something stupid could happen, but we all hope the chances of that are very, very low.
Putin, like our tyrant-wannabe ex-president and his morally rotted, autocratic political party, is a chronic liar. When they accuse others of lying, con-artistry and the like, they are projecting onto others what they do themselves in spades and with a shameless vengeance. Once again, it is clear that to demagogues, tyrants, crooks and liars ('bad people'), shameless hypocrisy and double standards are not concerns, morally or otherwise. It is just what bad people do. Those tactics sure do sound familiar. It sounds a lot like the rhetoric and behaviors from America's radical right.
Putin is probably right that confrontation is his best option, assuming something stupid doesn't happen as an consequence. Due to its crippling corruption and authoritarianism, Russia's GDP is a paltry ~$1.5 trillion, while the US GDP is ~$21 trillion and California's GDP is ~$3.3 trillion. Putin just doesn't have an economy that he can leverage. That is his fault, no matter how hard he blames the EU, NATO and the US. But he does have a powerful military and nuclear arsenal. Since he is rigidly demagogic, kleptocratic and autocratic, he won't cooperate or negotiate with the EU, US or NATO in good faith. All he has left is brute force and the threat of nuclear war.
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