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Putin Takes Russia Into Dark Period
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
June 5, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Since taking the reigns from Russian
President Boris Yeltsin May 7, 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin reversed
much of the democratic gains started under President Mikhail Gorbachev’s
glasnost and peristoika, a new beginning from Russia’s Soviet past. Inside the guilded walls of the
Kremlin, Putin promised to continue the Western-bound tradition of transitioning
Russia from the world’s most socialist state to a new age of capitalism and
openness. Instead of taking the
handoff from Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Putin continued his KGB past ushering
Russian into a new age of secrecy and totalitarianism. Shortly after taking office,
Russia’s fledgling free press found newspapers and TV stations closing in a
repressive era of not seen since Khrushchev’s Cold War nearly caused a nuclear
confrontation with the U.S. in the Caribbean in 1962 with the Kremlin’s attempt
to put nuclear missiles in Cuba.
Putin’s first move on taking office was to trim back Russia’s oligarchs
that had taken over many of the industries once controlled by the Soviet Union. Two year into his first term, Putin
decided to get into the oil business confiscating the oil companies of Russia’s
wealthiest oligarchs. Putin drove
Boris Berezovsky and his partner Roman Abramovich into exile, eventually
incarcerating Mikhail Khordorkovsky, Russia’s richest man with a net worth of
$16 billion, owner of Russia’s largest oil company Yukos. When Khordorkovsky hinted he might
run against Putin in 2004, Putin promptly had the KGB, now called the FSB,
charge Khordorkovsky with fraud, putting him into a Siberian prison. On Dec. 19, 2013, Putin released
Khordorkovsky from solitary confinement, allowing him to accept exile. Khordorkovsky now lives with his
family in Basel, Switzerland.
Since seizing Russia’s oil industry, Putin has transformed the Russian
economy into a Mideast-style petroleum business, competing with Saudi Arabia and
other OPEC oil exporters but primarily focused on Europe’s needs for natural
gas. Rumored to supply about 30% of
the European Union’s need for natural gas, Putin has made it difficult for
Europeans to break their dependence on Russian energy. Putin’s March 1 annexation of Crime
threw the EU for a loop, now concerned about more Russian expansion in Eastern
Europe and former Soviet satellites.
Putin’s seizure of Crimea prompted his March 24 expulsion from the G8,
where the world’s richest economies work on common economic interests. Since getting the boot, Putin’s
tried to bypass the G7, forming his own economic union with Kazakhstan and
Belarus to offset economic losses threatening the Russian economy.
Putin didn’t waste too much meeting first with Chinese President Xi
Jinping at the Sochi Winter Olympics, only days before he invaded Crimea. When Putin met Xi in Shanghai May
20, they talked turkey over Russia supplying China with the expected petroleum
and natural gas surplus from dwindling demand in Europe. Moving quickly to make up potential economic losses from Europe looking to other
suppliers, Putin showed no interest in returning Crimea, no matter what the
economic consequences with Europe. Meeting in Brussels, the G7 expressed a unified message to Putin to deescalate tension in
Eastern Ukraine and give back Crimea.
“We stand ready to intensify targeted sanctions and to consider
additional restrictive measures to impose further costs on Russia should events
so require,” said a G7 statement.
Knowing he’s on the outs with the G7, Putin moved ahead with closer ties to
North Korea.
Looking to form more economic ties with North Korea, Putin hopes to put
more pressure on the U.S. and EU on Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program. Knowing that Moscow plays a role, along with China, in containing Kim’s nuclear
ambitions, Putin hopes to pressure the U.S. and EU to abandon economic and trade
sanctions that have driven down the ruble and Russian stock market. Expectations of less economic ties
to the EU hurts the Russian economy and effectively seals Russia off from
world’s economic powers in the G7.
Putin’s March 1 decision on Crimea turns the clock back on Russian progress
since Gorbachev started the process in 1985 to begin overhauling the failed
Soviet economic system. Putin’s
step backward hurts Russia economically, but, more importantly, harms Russia’s
standing on the U.N. Security Council as a respected member seeking world peace.
Putin reacted harshly to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton’s comparison of Putin to Hitler in the 1930s. “When people push boundaries too
far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak,” Putin told
French TV in response to questions about Hillary’s comparison to Hitler. “But maybe weakness is not the worst
quality for a woman,” Putin said sarcastically, knowing Hillary could run for
president in 2016. Moving away from Europe and toward alliances with rogue regimes, Putin betrays Russia’s
privileged role on the U.N. Security Council.
Since Putin doesn’t respond to economic sanctions, it’s possible he’d
heed calls for Russia to get dropped from the U.N. Security Council. Bounced out the G8 March 24, Putin
shows a tone deafness to appropriate international decorum. Now that he’s willing to jump in bed
with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, the Security Council should take a second look.
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