You're reading: Former US secretary of state Albright: Putin lies to Russian people ‘on an hourly basis’

Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, on May 26 castigated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dishonesty about events in Ukraine and the United States’ role in supporting Ukraine's fledgling democracy.

“The people of Russia need to know they are being lied to on an hourly
basis by their president,” Albright told journalists in Kyiv on May 26. “I find it very
hard to understand much of anything of what Vladimir Putin is saying. Anybody who can say the dissolution of the Soviet Union is the greatest tragedy of the
20th century is not operating with facts. There were two world wars in which
millions of people were killed, among them Russians. So it I think it is
insulting what he has said to all of our historical knowledge.” 

Among other lies, Putin has portrayed Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution as led by “fascists” and directed by the United States, rather than as a democratic, Ukrainian-led revolt against a corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was supported by the Kremlin.

Albright has been in Kyiv for several days in her role as chairman of the
National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based international nongovernmental organization
that promotes democracy, human rights and fair elections in many nations of the
world. She was in Kyiv leading an NDI election observation mission, which gave high marks to the May 25 vote. “By conducting a generally well-run presidential election in the face of significant challenges, Ukrainians achieved a democratic milestone,” NDI concluded.

Here is the NDI statement assessing the May 25 presidential election in Ukraine. 

Albright, who served U.S. President Bill Clinton as secretary of state from 1997
to 2001, said that Putin “is also simply making things up. Part of the problem
is when you are lying to your own people, you need an enemy and that is what he
is doing. And I think the tragedy is that the Russian people deserve a
leadership that is deserving of the greatness of the Russian people and their
capabilities of being a country where the people have a voice. What is
happening in the propaganda of Russia is something that goes to another era and I had hoped it would not return to Russia.” 

Albright did not come out and say that she favors tougher sanctions against
Russia for its military invasion and attempted annexation of Crimea, or its ongoing
support of violent separatists in eastern Ukraine. But she did say she regrets
the divisions between the United States, which has been more willing to enact
tougher sanctions against Russia, and Europe, which has been much more resistant to
tougher measures. 

For instance, Spain came under fire recently for letting Russian warships
dock in its ports, while France is still considering selling two advanced
warships to Russia as Germany emphasizes its deep trade ties – and dependence
on Russian natural gas – while Britain doesn’t want to give up London’s global banking status as money launderer for Russian oligarchs. 

While
Albright said that “the Russians have to be held accountable for what they have
done in Crimea and the disturbances they are supporting in eastern Ukraine, I think it is very important for there to be unity between the United states and Europe.”

She
expressed hope that U.S. President Barack Obama’s June visit to Europe to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day – the allied landing in
Normandy, France, to liberate the continent from Nazi Germany – would showcase “the
strength of the Western alliance.”

On a
recent trip to Poland, Albright noted with optimism the energy-independence
initiatives under way, championed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and
others, so that Europe could “turn off the Russian spigot” of natural gas supplies. Europe depends on Russia for 30 percent of its gas supplies. 

“It’s going to require a lot of changes in infrastructure, in terms of oil
and gas routes, etc.,” Albright said. “There has to be a way that one is able
to understand that Russia’s current behavior is unacceptable, yet at the same
time figure out how to operate in a continent that has Russia on one side of
it. We need to hold Putin accountable for what he has done and the way he describes
things that are absolutely not true.” 

Ukraine’s challenge, she said, will be to defend its interests as a
sovereign nation while integrating into evolving European security structures
that may include a different role for NATO, which was initially set up as a
military alliance against the Soviet Union. 

“I think that people do not expect Ukraine to do things alone,” she said. “Being
part of a European system is important. This is what voters (on May 25) have
indicated not just in their vote, but it is what happened on Maidan (during the
EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled Viktor Yanukovych as president on Feb. 22.) It is a desire to be a European country, to be a part of it.” 

At an earlier news conference at the Teacher’s House in Kyiv, Albright
lavished praise on the Ukrainian people for their determination to hold a successful election despite Russian-backed aggression to disrupt the vote. She said that she hoped it would signal that Ukrainians
can start returning to a more normal, “business-as-usual” life. 

Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected]