The President of the Russian Federation decided to start a new life — and took the whole planet with him
The absolute majority of people at least once in their lives, but dream of turning this world around — radically changing it in accordance with their ideals, norms and ideas about right and wrong. But only an absolute, one might even say, a tiny minority succeeds. This Friday, one of the members of this most elite group on Earth — Russian President Vladimir Putin — turns 70 years old.
In his memoirs, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice describes, among other things, such an episode of his communication with the Russian leader: “Putin told me that he was delighted that the secretary of state would be a specialist on Russia: “This means that the relationship with us will take center stage for you!”
I didn’t know if he really thought that or if he was trying to flatter me. But I made a note in my head: do not underestimate the Russians — both the help they can provide and the damage they can cause.”
On the eve of Vladimir Putin’s anniversary, it can be stated that the Americans failed to achieve the laudable goal formulated by Condoleezza Rice. The “Russians” — both the country and its president — were still underestimated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Bashkiria. Photo: Alexander Astafyev
Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, as a “specialist on Russia” (some acquaintances of the former US Secretary of State note that she remained a specialist on the USSR), had every opportunity to understand what lies ahead for us all.
We read in another place of her memoirs: “They say that for Russia to lose Ukraine is the same as for the United States to lose Texas or California. But even such a comparison is not strong enough.” What comparison, then, from the point of view of Condoleezza Rice, is sufficiently strong and adequate? And here’s what: “losing Ukraine” (in the sense of seeing it in a hostile NATO camp) for Russia is the same as “losing the original 13 colonies” for the United States. For those who are not very aware of the details of the American history of the XVIII century: “the original 13 colonies” is the very heart, core of the USA, the first territory of the country.
After rereading this passage from the memoirs of the former Secretary of State, I urgently started looking for the publication date of her book. Reporting: this was written in 2011. There were still about 11 years left before the “X hour” of world history.
Why was this decade and a half wasted by the West (or if not wasted, then definitely not to achieve the result that would ensure stable peace in Europe)? Here is the only thing that comes to my mind: having formulated back in 2000 its famous question “what is Mr. Putin?”, the collective West could not find a clear answer to it.
Most of the world’s politicians say one thing, think another, do the third. When Putin conducts one of his political (or even more military) special operations, he naturally remembers well the importance of “disorienting the enemy.” However, one of the most important distinguishing features of GDP as a world leader is its unusual frankness. He says what he thinks anddoes what he says. Of course, the promises and threats of the Kremlin’s master are often not fulfilled immediately. Sometimes years and entire five-year plans pass before these threats become a reality of world politics. However, looking back, you can almost always notice: but Putin warned, and Putin warned.
Photo: Ivan Skripalev
February 2007, Vladimir Putin’s famous speech at the Munich Security Conference: “What is a unipolar world? No matter how this term is decorated, it ultimately means only one thing in practice: it is one center of power, one center of power, one center of decision-making. This is the world of one master, one sovereign. And this is ultimately disastrous not only for everyone who is within this system, but also for the sovereign himself, because it destroys him from within.
And this has nothing to do, of course, with democracy. Because democracy is, as you know, the power of the majority, taking into account the interests and opinions of the minority. By the way, Russia, us, is constantly being taught democracy. But for some reason, those who teach us don’t really want to study themselves.”
By the autumn of 2022, Putin’s rhetoric aimed at criticizing the “Western model of the world order”, of course, sharply tightened: “The West has been looking for all this time and continues to look for a new chance to strike at us, weaken and destroy Russia, as they have always dreamed of, to break up our state, to pit peoples against each other, to condemn them to poverty and extinction.”. They are simply haunted by the fact that there is such a great, huge country in the world, with its territory, natural wealth, resources, with a people who cannot and will never live by someone else’s orders.
The West is ready to step over everything to preserve the neocolonial system that allows it to parasitize, in fact, plunder the world at the expense of the power of the dollar and technological dictate, to collect a real tribute from humanity.”
November 7, 2010. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tested a Formula 1 car in the Leningrad region. Photo: AP
But what exactly is at the heart of this tightening? Why did GDP turn from a politician who, having come to power, at first sincerely tried to integrate Russia into the world order that existed at that time, first into a harsh critic of the West, and then into a leader who is now destroying Western hegemony in Ukraine by force?
A clear answer to this question can, in my opinion, be found in another book published in the USA more than ten years ago. Analyzing in his “Superpower Illusions” the reaction of the West to Putin’s Munich speech, the penultimate US ambassador to the USSR, Jack Matlock, wrote the following in 2010: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates responded to the harsh tone of the Russian president’s speech by noting that Putin’s words reminded him of the Cold War and that “one cold war is more more than enough.” He vowed to go to Moscow and explain that American policy is not directed against Russian interests.”
And then — attention! — then Jack Matlock, who knows our country perfectly, wrote a phrase that explains, if not everything, then almost everything: “The problem of Russia was not the lack of communications, but the refusal of the Bush administration to take Russian interests and approaches seriously.” The Bush administration is gone — the problem remains. The Obama administration has left — the problem has acquired an even more serious scale… Sooner or later everything had to reach the boiling point, the point of no return. In 2022, we have reached this point of no return.
Vladimir Putin took part in the gala match of the Amateur Hockey League on May 7, 2012 in Moscow. Photo: kremlin.ru
Am I trying to rewrite history by using phrases like “sooner or later everything had to reach the point of no return”? From the point of view of the political opportunities and political options previously open to Putin, my similar self-criticism is unequivocally completely fair. But the situation should be viewed from the point of view of what we know about the president’s internal values and political attitudes — about his ideas about the only correct internal structure of Russia and about its only right place in the world.
Russian Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky responds to the remark of the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky on February 17, 2021: “Cave nationalism, the slogan of which is “Russia is only for Russians,” only harms Russians, only harms Russia and contributes to its rocking from within, and we should not allow this… In order to preserve Russia, which is multinational and multi-confessional, it is necessary that a representative of every ethnic group, even the smallest, feels that this is his Homeland, he has no other, he is protected here, and he is ready to lay down his life in order to defend this country.”
October 18, 2018, meeting of the Valdai Club. The President’s dialogue with the moderator of the event, Fyodor Lukyanov. Putin: “I want Russia to be preserved, including in the interests of the Russian people. And in this sense, I said that I was the most correct, the most real nationalist and the most effectiveI am. But this is not cave nationalism, stupid and stupid, which leads to the collapse of our state.” Lukyanov: “If you are alone, it’s not enough. Do you have like-minded people, the same non-nationalists?” Putin: “There is. Almost 146 million people.”
November 25, 2016. With the ball after a meeting in the Kremlin with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Photo: Global Look Press
Is there nothing about foreign policy in these two fragments of presidential speeches? Formally, there really isn’t. But turn on your intuition. Read not only what is said, but also what directly or indirectly follows from what is said.
Russia, in Putin’s eyes, can only be a great and independent world power. Some former independent world powers feel quite comfortable in the role of Washington’s junior partners. For example, for the former colonial mistress of the United States of Great Britain, the “special relationship” with America is in political circles the subject of a quasi-religious cult. For Putin, this path is both impossible, unacceptable, and disgusting. He is deeply convinced that Russia’s partnership with the West can be either equal or none. In 2022, this is what we have — “no partnership”.
Putin is 70 years old: how the president has changed over the years in power
See the photo gallery on the topic
Having reached the age of 70, even the most active people often calm down before — they prioritize calmness, stability, the absence of shocks, moral comfort. But for Putin, the source of moral comfort, the well in which he draws spiritual strength, is the main mission of his political life. The mission, more important than which there is nothing, is the struggle for restorationRussia’s leading role in the world. And this is not at all a clumsy (or clumsy — there seems to be such a word in the Russian language) attempt to say something pleasant about the hero of the day. This is just a statement of reality.
Putin cries and dances: the most unusual photos of the president
See the photo gallery on the topic