In Statecraft, Margaret Thatcher wrote the following when discussing what she dubbed 'The Russian Enigma:' "While connections, corruption, crime, and cartels form the basis of the Russian system there can be no true freedom and no genuine democracy."
It doesn't take a genius to tell that, in Russia today, freedom and democracy, in just about any sense of the words, are vanishing fast; and this, of course, spells disaster for the United States. An undemocratic, oppressive Russia is, of course, nothing new to the United States; indeed, it would be safe to say that when it comes to combating the totalitarian tendencies of the Russian system the U.S has unmatched experience. Moreover, as the old saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt; and that's exactly what we should have for Russia right now: contempt.
There is, of course, something ironic about the fact that, as we attempt to spread the benefits of Democratic-Republicanism to a new region of the world, we get to watch it slowly vanish from the last region to which we spread it. This is not to say that Russia had ever truly emerged from the depths of communism to embrace democratic principles in the same fashion as their Japanese neighbors; there has always been room to criticize post-Soviet regimes in Russia, but it seems that President Putin has indeed bucked whatever positive trends had begun to take hold in the Siberian hinterlands in favor of trends which better remind him of his old days in the KGB.
In the wake of recent expatriated spy poisonings and the recent handling of anti-government protests, which, in some respects, evoked memories of Tiananmen Square, it is becoming clear that Putin has no interest in protecting what we Americans refer to as 1st Amendment rights. Additionally, the biggest problem arising from the increase in Russian oppressiveness is that President Putin is trying his best to extend this authoritarian influence to other countries; namely former Soviet provinces and satellites such as the Ukraine and Poland. When Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in 1986 and declared that "freedom [would be] the victor" in the Cold War, he perhaps was thinking more so of the various Soviet satellites and republics than he was of Russia proper. These countries, as Reagan no doubt knew, had a tremendous potential, and desire, to become free. It was for them that he held the greatest hope. So for us to stand by and willingly ignore increasing Russian influence in the area, whether through oil threats or otherwise, is surely a gargantuan slap to the face of Reagan's dream for Eastern Europe.
As if the increasing force of the iron fist being brought down upon Eastern European peoples is not enough, Russia further incriminates itself with its brash behavior towards and relations with Iran. As it becomes increasingly more obvious that the influence and looniness of Iran is the biggest threat in the Middle East, the underhanded behavior by Russia in their dealings with that country become all the more dangerous. Aside from blocking any attempts to sanction or deal with Iran through the United Nations, Russia, to a much greater extent, even, than China, has blocked any and every attempt by the West to deal with Iran. They undermine European Union attempts to gain ground and, most significantly, declare that they will continue with their plans to sell Iran various bits of nuclear technology which could (or shall I say will) help them develop Atomic Weaponry. Putin deals with Iran, in part, I believe, because, aside from gaining financial profit through the sales, he takes great satisfaction in flipping the bird to the West. Putin knows that Iran is trying to build a nuke, and he probably wants them to do it, with the expectation that they will try to use it on either the United States or Great Britain. While the Russian President may find such a scenario personally beneficial in a variety of ways (even humorous, perhaps I would be interested to see his reaction when an Iranian nuke is used on Moscow in the name of Chechnya's Muslim rebels.
So indeed, Russia is not only plummeting into a post-Soviet totalitarianism, but is doing so at the expense of the Free World. Why, you might ask, is this not a bigger priority for the Free World? Unfortunately, the answer to that question lies with the most powerful man in the Free World, and his willingness, or lack thereof, to see the Russian situation for what it is. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, Winston Churchill continually cautioned FDR against trusting Josef Stalin - to no avail. President Bush's assertion that "when I look into [President Putin's] eyes I see an honest man" reeks of the same kind of ignorance displayed by FDR those many years ago. As a result of FDR's concessions to Stalin at Yalta, Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, saw its dreams of freedom lost to Russian totalitarianism for nearly 50 years. Which Nations will be forced to pay the price for President Bush's naive ignorance? Better yet, who will play the part of Churchill and strongly caution the President against Mr. Putin? And if someone does take up the mantle of Churchill, will the American President listen this time? Or is he doomed to repeat the mistake of the past?
Indeed, it is time for President Bush and the rest of our leaders, both in the U.S and the rest of the Western world, to wake up and realize the threat posed by the Russian Nation and its corrupt President. We need to get tough with Russia; otherwise we will likely fail to stop Iranian nuclear development. You know, the name of the game has changed from communism to fascism (Islamic and otherwise) - but the enemy has stayed the same. 'Hardball,' as Ronald Reagan discovered, works well with our Russian foe, and so, for our own sake, the game must begin in earnest.
