Vladimir Putin’s growing tyranny certainly has its surreal aspects, as the Wall Street Journal highlights with this article about how Russian food inspectors are competing to carry out the Kremlin’s edict to destroy foods imported from Western Europe in retaliation for Western sanctions on Russia following its unprovoked assault on Ukraine. Overzealous inspectors are destroying tons of fruits and vegetables, seafood, and cheese — this in a country where fully 15.9 percent of the population or nearly 23 million people now live below the poverty line. That Putin is proceeding with this masochistic food destruction shows – or, rather, confirms — that he values making a political point over the welfare of his own people.
Meanwhile, an Estonian security official, Eston Kohver, who was kidnapped while on Estonian soil and smuggled into Russia, has been sentenced to 15 years hard labor by a Russian kangaroo court for a variety of trumped-up offenses.
Estonia’s president, Toomas Henrik Ilves, has compared this to cases of Soviet troops killing Baltic border guards prior to the Soviet invasion and takeover of the Baltic states in 1940. A State Department spokesman said that this case “demonstrates a flagrant disregard by Russian authorities for the rule of law, and raises serious questions about Russia’s compliance with its international legal obligations.”
Meanwhile, too, fighting is escalating in Ukraine, where, a February ceasefire notwithstanding, Russian-controlled “rebels” are increasing their attacks on the Ukrainian troops who are trying to prevent more of the nation’s soil being wrenched out of the control of its democratically elected government. The State Department also protests these ceasefire violations, as if communiques can stop artillery shells.
What all of this suggests is that Putin has not, to put it mildly, been persuaded to take a kinder, gentler approach to governance since the imposition of Western sanctions. Instead, he is up to his old tricks — trying to grab as much of Ukraine as he can while signaling that the Baltics may be next. Little wonder that America’s senior military leaders now identify Russia as the No. 1 security threat we face.
The problem continues to get worse because the Obama White House, last seen trying to “reset” relations with Putin, still doesn’t do enough to stop his aggression. The U.S. is willing to train Ukrainian troops, but not provide them with offensive weaponry. The U.S. is willing to impose some sanctions on Russia, but not to deliver an economic death sentence by kicking all Russian firms out of dollar-denominated trades. The U.S. is not even stopping the military cuts that will soon make our army so small it will no longer be able to meet all of its commitments.
President Obama, you see, doesn’t want to “provoke” Putin or “escalate” tensions. To a man of Putin’s moral caliber, that can mean only one thing — that he has a green light for as much aggression as he can get away with. The opportunity is there for the taking, and, not surprisingly, he is taking it. But the price is being paid by Ukrainians, Estonians, and, above all, by his own people, while the U.S. and its European allies decorously avert their gaze.
