A Few Thoughts

“There are men in the world who derive as stern an exaltation from the proximity of disaster and ruin, as others from success.” Winston Churchill

In 2001, I travelled to the “new” Russia. The USSR had dissolved a decade before and the country was full of optimism for the future. It also had a new president — Vladimir Putin, who was appointed to Boris Yeltsin’s seat when Yeltsin resigned on the eve of Y2K, December 31, 1999. Putin was then elected to the Russian presidency in 2000.

When I returned to Russia in 2005, the mood of hope had eroded noticeably. A shadow had fallen across the bright future. The shadow’s name was Vladimir Putin.

On my first trip to Russia, I met one of the most gentle, tolerant and compassionate women I know. She is a Russian patriot and also somewhat prescient. I saw her angry once —at the mention of Putin. She spit the acronym “KGB” out like rotted meat. In 2011, she exiled herself to Norway. She saw what Putin was doing and she wouldn’t live under his realm.

Putin was born in 1952 in a city still called Leningrad. Five months later, Joseph Stalin died, and Nikita Khrushchev became first secretary of the Communist Party, followed by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. In 1975 — 24 years before he became President — Putin joined the KGB, the same agency that, under many names, carried out the pogroms and purges of Stalin’s Soviet Union. The USSR was 15 years from dissolution, plenty of time for Putin to make his bones.

Brezhnev’s reign was second only to Stalin’s in length. He clamped down on internal dissidents, orchestrated the invasion of Czechoslovakia and interfered in Afghanistan. In 1982 — as did Stalin, Brezhnev died in office. Putin has seen to amending the Russian Constitution so he can remain president beyond two terms. Under current law, he can remain in power until 2036, when he will be 84 years old. Perhaps he plans to die in office, as well.

Besides his chosen career path, there have been hints all along about what Putin was capable of. Disappearing critics. Threatened, poisoned and dead journalists. Arrogant defiance of NATO. Bullying those who disagree. Interfering in Ukraine matters for years even before this month.

Now, he has shown his truest colors in the invasion of Ukraine. He stood before the world and blithely called it not aggression, but a “military action.” In fact, the Russian press is forbidden under the threat of 15 years in prison to call it an “invasion” or a “war,” though indeed it is. Putin threatens anyone who would interfere — or tell the truth. He is a megalomaniacal liar. His activation of Russia’s nuclear deterrent force tells me he is also paranoid. It’s as if when Stalin died, his dybbuk* inhabited baby Vladimir’s body, for Putin is certainly channeling Stalin.

Since I am writing this on Monday, I can’t know what the status of the war in Ukraine will be when you read this. Today, the capitol still stands. Zelensky is still directing the Ukrainian war effort. The cyber forces of the free world are hacking away at Russian netspace. Thousands of weapons are being airlifted to Poland and Romania and then shuttled across the borders into Ukraine. The Ukrainians are fighting back and fiercely, seemingly much to the surprise of the Russian military, who may have been told that the Ukrainians were going to roll over.

What I do know is that leaders like Putin have plagued the Russian people for centuries, as well as those of neighboring nations. To their credit, even though the Kremlin has shut down access to Facebook and Twitter, thousands of Russians are in the streets in many cities risking arrest to tell Putin they are appalled at his heavy-handedness. I find this hopeful. From the 1920s well into the ’70s, this would have been tantamount to a self-imposed death sentence. Even as Putin tries to shut down the truth, it is still finding its way into and out of Russia.

In the meantime, Russia is taking big hits from inside and out. Their stock market tanked at the news of the invasion and continues to fall. Putin’s actions have essentially destroyed social and economic connections it has taken decades to build. Even the Swiss, famous for neutrality in past conflicts, have frozen Russian assets.

The ruble was worth less than three-quarters of a cent this morning — 140 rubles to the dollar. It was 28.75 rubles to the buck when I was there in 2001. This is not good news for the not-so-wealthy, unfortunately, but rich “friends” of Putin have lost billions.

As for American commentators who applaud Putin’s actions, I have a question: “Why are you condoning violent aggression against a country, the only sin of which is sharing a border with Russia?” Good news? Most of them are backing down. Most. More reasonable conservatives are being distinguished from raging reactionaries. This could be one of the good things to comes out of all this.

What do we do? What can we do? Those are questions that I don’t have a really good answer for, except to wait and watch and pray for Ukraine and hope our leaders and the leaders of the rest of the world — including Zelensky — can persuade a despot from his ways by some means.

One thing we can do is remember that Russian people are much like ordinary Americans. On both of my visits to their country, I was met with open curiosity about America and sincere and friendly hospitality. Once meals and stories are shared with others, they stop being “them” and move into a place called “us.” We are all in this together. We must support the Russian common folk, even as we condemn their leader. The young man following orders in a Russian uniform is just as scared as the Ukrainian woman waiting across the street for him. It is men like Putin who threaten the well-being of both.

* A dybbuk is a malevolent wandering spirit that enters and possesses the body of a living person until exorcized.

Sandy Compton is the editor and publisher at Blue Creek Press and author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction. His latest is "The Dog With His Head On Sideways," available at the Ledger office and online at bluecreekpress.com or Amazon.