A wicked political drama starring the presidents of the United States and Russia is playing on the world stage.
President Vladimir Putin is waging an unprovoked bloody war in Ukraine. Some 80,000 troops–supported by tanks, air and sea power—stand on its boarder: will they strike? He seized the Azov Sea and befriends Greece and Turkey with an eye on the Dardanelles Straits and the Mediterranean while encircling in the Antarctic by way of the Bearing Sea and Canada’s huge shoreline. He’s into empire-building.
President Donald Trump is helping. By yanking America’s troops out of Syria, he gives away an energy-rich country in the Middle East to Russia. Putin also gets a vitally important port on the Mediterranean.
The Russian is waging cyberwarfare too, plying social media with fake news, lies, troll factories penetrating institutions and electorates at home and abroad. Nothing gives Russia greater notoriety than its brazen attack on America’s elections precipitating more sanctions originally slapped on for grabbing Ukraine’s Crimea. They are hurting but as yet have failed to check President Putin’s aggression. Huge gaps and lack of uniformity among countries provide loopholes. He, of course, is unpunished: he’s not on the list.
He undermines international institutions and immobilizes the UN Security Council, manipulates internal politics of other nations, wields kompromat and lies to ensure submission and fear. Lavish investments in democratic centres – New York, London, Vienna, Tel Aviv—buy him neutrality if not outright support. He kills at home and abroad –Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, Britain. He has made Russia central to Iran and North Korea’s nuclear program. When allure is needed, he takes off his shirt for a cheap shot.
Best, he has installed an asset in the White House.
Trump–an odious, unqualified leader– is an unfaltering admirer of Putin’s dictatorial ways. Copying him, Trump creates chaos at home and abroad. He pushes for advantage against the limits of the Constitution, governs by lies and staged reality TV-like diversions—fake immigrant caravan, wall emergency– and real hardship for Americans with a government shutdown.
Most worrisome is the precarious drop from the high ground needed for effective leadership at home and in the free world. He is unprinciples and scared to confront the world’s leading terrorist, President Putin.
The two amigos will be in Davos. Oleg Derepaska, a key link between them and Paul Manafort was taken off the US sanctions in time to join in another secret meeting? The entire world wonders why and shivers.
Meanwhile, Ukraine remains alone in punishing Russia militarily as Putin keeps the free world from assisting with hollow nuclear threats. He won’t do it! He’d be stupid to destroy his successful incremental move on the world’s strongest economies where he and his ilk hide hundreds of billions from their rightful owners, the Russian citizens. But the threats buy time and ensure advantage while President Trump assists from the White House.
The good news coming out of this mess is the exposure of Russia’s mendacity. Anti-Russia sentiment is mounting as Special Counsel Robert Mueller presses on with his investigation. More pushback is emerging.
Recently, NATO responded with warships to Russia’s Azov Sea attack. Short of membership, it is working with Ukraine via theDistinctive Partnership for “a peaceful, stable and undivided Europe”. There are fewer calls to weaken sanctions while calls to halt Germany’s NorthStream2 pipeline with Russia grow. Indicative of the antagonism Russia brought on itself is the decoupling of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from Moscow after 330 years of its domination. In the United States the checks and balances among the three branches of government are being reaffirmed by the now Democratic House.
Friend to the rescue!
Putin gloats as his amigo in the White House threatens to pull the US out of NATO. It is impossible to imagine such perversity from a patriot-president. The conclusion, therefore, is that he is not.
The future of America’s politics—the world’s– hangs on the various investigations underway in Washington, especially the Special Counsel’s. So far there are indictments, arrests, and shocking revelations: the depth of Russia’s penetration has reaches beyond the manipulation of election. It has infested America’s foreign policy. Legal documents show that the president’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort intervened on behalf of Russia to squashsanctions against Moscow.
There’s more. On Jan. 12, the New York Times headline revealed: F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia. Crimes require punishment. The guilty must pay. That means both presidents.
Oksana Bashuk Hepburn, former president of a consulting firm and senior policy adviser to the government of Canada, writes on international issues.
