BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin of Russia resents the modernization of the Ukrainian economy and culture by being closer to the European Union (EU) and the West.
He may see it as a rebuke to him and a threat to the stability of the thread-bare economy of Russia and the relative poverty of the Russian people. They might want to oust him one day. They want higher standards of living and greater freedom and prosperity.
Putin has stifled dissent and protest with cruelty and repression. That economic hardship is increasing with the sanctions being imposed. This war and invasion could backfire badly for him but his generals are not telling him the thousands of Russians killed and weapons destroyed.
The international sanctions suddenly cut off the Russian economy from the Swift system, a fast international payments system that speeds the financial transactions around the world, and it is damaging the Russian economy. The freezing of the financial accounts of Russia held in countries outside Russia is a disaster his nation is now cut off from the world, economically, trading, sports and culturally. Foreign investors are closing down and leaving.
The value of the Russian ruble has dropped like a stone against all major currencies. All this has to be a cause of concern. Putin has to be alarmed and worried. Besides, his oligarchs whom he enriched with billions and power to protect him and hide his personal wealth are losing their prestige, property and freedom to fly everywhere they want.
Russian flights are barred everywhere. Their luxury, million-dollar yachts moored in Mediterranean ports may be targets for sabotage as one sailor tried to scuttle one recently. The ships will be held by sanctions in ports. The French government has held up one ship owned by a Russian oligarch.
The oligarchs created Putin and they are now losing billions of dollars as their stocks and shares and companies are failing. They may want to have a new puppet.
Putin cannot accept or endure any criticism, challenge or opposition. He ordered his opponents poisoned and assassinated in Russia and outside it. He totally controls the media and dissent is not allowed. Thousands of Russians who protested the war are being arrested.
Russia is a dictatorship and now Putin is the new Hitler as Time Magazine pictures him on its front cover. He and not the Russian people has released the dogs of war, but they are suffering as a direct consequence.
He sees himself as a strong, historical heroic person, the strong leader image which Russia has always desired. Instead, in the eyes of the world, he will be seen as a warmonger and dictator not the one that won Ukraine from the West.
As the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee the bombs as refugees, the Eastern countries of the EU have opened their borders and allowed them to enter freely without formal asylum applications. Compare this to the barbed wire fences and troops deployed to the same borders to stop Muslims and black refugees from entering. The dramatic change of immigration policy is, as one commentator said, “These refugees are white, Christian and like us, not Muslim or black, they are one of us.”
Even in war, racial discrimination is a national virus and weakness. (www.preda.org)/PN
