My opinion of Vladimir Putin
People on social media seem to like to tell me my opinion of Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation. It seems a rather strange and arrogant attitude to me -- "If I want your opinion I'll give it to you", so though I don't normally like giving my opinion of people, I thought I might try to write it down, so I can refer people to it when they ask me why I hold the opinions that others ascribe to me.
I'm generally reluctant to criticise people. I might criticise things that they do or say, if I believe the things they do or say are evil, but judgement of the person is something best left to God. It's the principle of "hate the sin but love the sinner".
Another difficulty with expressing one's opinion of other people is that it changes from time to time. My current opinion of Mr Putin is different from what it was a week ago, or a year ago, or a decade ago. So my opinion expressed here is at the time of writing only, and this time is within a week of Mr Putin ordering a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And, as a friend wrote in the Orthodox Peace Fellowship forum immediately afterwards:
I heard a former Canadian diplomat say on the radio yesterday that he always regarded Putin as a consummate chess player. Now it seems he’s simply throwing dice.
I had always regarded Putin as an exponent of Realpolitik, that is the policy of giving priority to the national self interest (as opposed, for example, to principles of morality, justice or compassion), first expounded by the 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
It would seem to be in Russia's national self-interest to have Ukraine as a friendly neighbour and trade partner.Invading Ukraine seems to be counter-productive in that regard, as all it does is stir up resentment and hatred. Hence the former Canadian diplomat's remark.
Even before that, however, since 2014, Putin seemed to be going against Russia's national self-interest with regard to Ukraine. People in eastern Ukraine had generally favoured good relations with Russia, people in western Ukraine less so (western Ukraine used to be ruled by Poland/Lithuania). Putin, seeing himself as the protector of Russian-speaking people who formed the majority in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, supported rebels in the east, and occupied Crimea where, after a referendum, the majority said they wished to be part of Russia. But this upset the balance of power in Ukraine, by removing those people who might have voted for a government that would have been well-disposed to Russia, and simply inflamed resentment in the rest pf Ukraine. At the same time, however, the global West actively promoted anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine that was calculated to make it more hostile to Russia. This seems to have caused Putin to lose his cool and start throwing dice.
People have compared Putin's invasion of Ukraine with the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. I think a better comparison might be with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. It will probably achieve as much, or as little, as that did.
In internal policy. Putin seems to have been authoritarian, rather like the South African government under National Party rule between 1948 and 1994 -- muzzling the media, suppressing opposition if it became too vociferous or effective and so on. This has especially been the case since 2014, with the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine against a trade agreement with Russia, which resulted in a putsch against the pro-Russian president, though both he and his immediate successor appear to have been equally corrupt.
And since then, I have noticed, the Russia Today TV news station became as ardently anti-Western as the Western media were ardently anti-Russian. Before 2014 Russia Today, like Al Jazeera, gave reasonably unbiased and interesting news reports from around the world. After 2014, presumably under pressure from Putin, it became as full of shrill anti-Western propaganda as CNN and the BBC were full of shrill anti-Russian propaganda, and was no longer worth watching.
And since his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has lost the moral high ground (if he ever had any) and has fallen to the level of Tony Blair, who ordered the bombardment and invasions of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. So my opinion of Vladimir Putin is now much the same as my opinion of Tony Blair since 1999. But I don't know either of them personally. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord sees the heart. It is their belligerent war-mongering policies that I most object to. So again I ask, read what I said about Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.
I'm generally reluctant to criticise people. I might criticise things that they do or say, if I believe the things they do or say are evil, but judgement of the person is something best left to God. It's the principle of "hate the sin but love the sinner".
Another difficulty with expressing one's opinion of other people is that it changes from time to time. My current opinion of Mr Putin is different from what it was a week ago, or a year ago, or a decade ago. So my opinion expressed here is at the time of writing only, and this time is within a week of Mr Putin ordering a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And, as a friend wrote in the Orthodox Peace Fellowship forum immediately afterwards:
I heard a former Canadian diplomat say on the radio yesterday that he always regarded Putin as a consummate chess player. Now it seems he’s simply throwing dice.
I had always regarded Putin as an exponent of Realpolitik, that is the policy of giving priority to the national self interest (as opposed, for example, to principles of morality, justice or compassion), first expounded by the 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
It would seem to be in Russia's national self-interest to have Ukraine as a friendly neighbour and trade partner.Invading Ukraine seems to be counter-productive in that regard, as all it does is stir up resentment and hatred. Hence the former Canadian diplomat's remark.
Even before that, however, since 2014, Putin seemed to be going against Russia's national self-interest with regard to Ukraine. People in eastern Ukraine had generally favoured good relations with Russia, people in western Ukraine less so (western Ukraine used to be ruled by Poland/Lithuania). Putin, seeing himself as the protector of Russian-speaking people who formed the majority in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, supported rebels in the east, and occupied Crimea where, after a referendum, the majority said they wished to be part of Russia. But this upset the balance of power in Ukraine, by removing those people who might have voted for a government that would have been well-disposed to Russia, and simply inflamed resentment in the rest pf Ukraine. At the same time, however, the global West actively promoted anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine that was calculated to make it more hostile to Russia. This seems to have caused Putin to lose his cool and start throwing dice.
People have compared Putin's invasion of Ukraine with the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. I think a better comparison might be with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. It will probably achieve as much, or as little, as that did.
In internal policy. Putin seems to have been authoritarian, rather like the South African government under National Party rule between 1948 and 1994 -- muzzling the media, suppressing opposition if it became too vociferous or effective and so on. This has especially been the case since 2014, with the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine against a trade agreement with Russia, which resulted in a putsch against the pro-Russian president, though both he and his immediate successor appear to have been equally corrupt.
And since then, I have noticed, the Russia Today TV news station became as ardently anti-Western as the Western media were ardently anti-Russian. Before 2014 Russia Today, like Al Jazeera, gave reasonably unbiased and interesting news reports from around the world. After 2014, presumably under pressure from Putin, it became as full of shrill anti-Western propaganda as CNN and the BBC were full of shrill anti-Russian propaganda, and was no longer worth watching.
And since his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has lost the moral high ground (if he ever had any) and has fallen to the level of Tony Blair, who ordered the bombardment and invasions of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. So my opinion of Vladimir Putin is now much the same as my opinion of Tony Blair since 1999. But I don't know either of them personally. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord sees the heart. It is their belligerent war-mongering policies that I most object to. So again I ask, read what I said about Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.