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Putin Joins Hands with Kim Jong-un
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
December 25, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin stood by North Korea’s 31-year-old rogue leader Kim
Jong-un, after White House officials fingered the Stalinist regime in the
cyber-attack costing Culver-City-based Sony Pictures millions in computer
damage. North Korea railed against
the expected Christmas Day release of “The Interview,” a parody of an
assassination attempt on the North Korean leader. Calling Pyongyang’s reaction to the
film “quite understandable,” Kim won sympathy from Moscow’s foreign office. Throwing his support to Kim, Putin
shows he’s taken Russia rogue, no longer affiliating with U.S. and European
Union after seizing Ukraine’s Crimea March 1.
Faced with economic challenges from sanctions and plunging oil prices,
Putin expressed support for his communist ally. Alienated from the West, Putin pursues economic alliances with former Soviet states.
Instead of developing better economic ties to the West, Putin pivoted
back to old alliances with former Soviet states of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan, hoping to compensate for lost oil revenues from the European
Union. While still supplying about
30% of Europe’s petroleum and natural gas, Putin looks elsewhere to make up
losses. Hoping to make up lost
revenue with India and China, Putin shows no real interest in resolving the
Ukraine crisis. Throwing support of
pro-Russian separatists in Southeastern Ukraine, Putin hasn’t backed down from
Ukraine’s request to stop backing independence of Southeastern Ukraine. Russia rejects Obama’s assertion
that North Korea hacked Sony Pictures, demanding proof that the mischief was
actually backed by the North Korean government.
State Department officials offered no proof but were confident in their
charges.
Putin’s defiant stance on Ukraine stems from his belief that Russia is
under siege from the West. When he
seized Crimea March 1, it was only eight days after the end of the Sochi Winter
Olympics. Putin sat idly by hosting
the Games watching Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovic bounced
out of Kiev. Seizing Crimea, Putin
believed he had countered Western moves to take control of the Black Sea port,
home to Russia’s warm water fleet at Sebastopol.
Putin’s taken a hard line against the U.S. and EU, flirting with former
Soviet satellites and other communist regimes around the globe, especially China
and North Korean. Since seizing
Crimea March 1, Putin’s shored up ties with Havana and Caracas in the Western
Hemisphere, ingratiating himself with former Soviet states, especially poor
countries like Moldova and Armenia, unable to make it financially.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich warned the U.S.
that retaliating against North Koreas would be “counterproductive.” He insisted the U.S. had no proof of
the hack and that North Korea wanted an independent investigation. North Korea denies that it had
anything to do with hacking Sony Pictures’ computers, despite similarities to
other North Korean hacks in South Korea.
“The FBI has enough information to conclude that the North Korean
government is responsible fir these actions,” said an FBI spokesman. Knowing the high probability of a
North Korean hack, Russia’s Foreign Service still comes to Kim’s aid. When Lukashevich says it’s “quite
understandable” the North Koreas would lash out against the blasphemous “The
Interview,” he’s confirming that North Korea was well-justified hacking Sony’s
computers.
Inviting Kim to attend a 70th year commemoration of defeating Nazi
Germany in Red Square next year offends every country that sacrificed its blood
and treasure to end Hitler’s attempt to conquer Europe. Fascist countries like North Korea
and Russia have not regard for freedom of speech. Anyone that speaks against Putin or
Kim either winds up persecuted, imprisoned or dead. When Russia’s richest oligarch
Mkhail Khodorkovsky dared to challenge Putin politically in 2003, he was
arrested, charged with fraud and eventually jailed in Siberia. Once worth over $15 billion, Putin confiscated Khodorkovsky’s Yukos oil company,
eventually pardoning him Dec. 23, 2013, after spending 10 years in prison. Putin has no problem with Kim
because he controls the most repressive regime on the planet, where there exists
no civil liberties or human rights, only totalitarian control.
North Korean and Russian
authorities have no concept of U.S. First Amendment, guaranteeing artists of all
kinds freedom of speech. “The concept of the movie is so aggressive and scandalous, that the reaction of the North
Korean side, and not just it, is quite understandable,” showing no regard for
artistic expression. Referring to a
comedy as “aggressive and scandalous,” Lukashevich reveals to the true nature of
communist regimes: The complete
intolerance for freedom of speech.
Inviting Kim, the world’s most egregious example of dictatorship and repression,
to attend a 70-year anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, shows just how
far Putin has gone off the rails Joining forces with Kim shows how tone-deaf Putin has become to Western democracies. North Korea and Russia’s overreaction
shows how they value suppressing free speech, glorifying totalitarianism
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