What can one expect from a person who thinks that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the 20th century’s greatest geopolitical tragedy and that Josef Stalin was an efficient manager, notwithstanding the cold-blooded murders of millions of innocent people?
More nonsense, that’s what. And more nonsense is what the world is getting, in dangerously larger doses, from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He’s now the prime example internationally of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
At various times in his nearly decade-long rule, Putin has been Vladimir The Warrior, Vladimir The Gas Pipeline Expert and Vladimir The Kind Czar. Lately, he is showing off his Vladimir The Historian credentials. But in all the little dictator’s incarnations, at least a couple of constants remain: Putin does as he pleases, and he remains seriously deluded.
In Putin’s latest attempt to dismiss Ukraine as an independent nation, he visited on May 24 the gravesite of 20th century General Anton Denikin, who led the losing White Russians against the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war. Putin advised journalists to read Denikin’s diaries, especially the parts concerning “Greater Russia and Little Russia – Ukraine.”
“He says that no one should be allowed to interfere in relations between us; they have always been the business of Russia itself,” recounted Putin, who also praised these Denikin words: “It is a crime if someone starts to talk about the division of Russia and Ukraine, even if this is being said by activists of the White movement or by foreigners.” Of course, Putin has trashed Ukraine before, infamously in April 2008 when he reputedly told then U.S. President George W. Bush: “You understand, George, Ukraine is not even a nation.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the “human Potemkin village” of a Russian president, as American columnist George Will has called him, is establishing a commission to screen the correct – i.e., the Kremlin leadership’s view – of history. It’s no surprise that Putin’s protege doesn’t understand that historical truth emerges from a competition of facts, ideas and scholarship.
Russia gets riled over any deviation of what from it calls the “common history” of Russia and Ukraine. The Kremlin is upset over this summer’s plans to honor 17th century Hetman Ivan Mazepa, who fought against Russian czarist forces in an alliance with Sweden in the Battle of Poltava. Russian leaders regard Mazepa as a traitor while many Ukrainians revere him as a nationalist hero. Considering that people were enslaved as serfs until 1861 in the Russian empire, it’s a wonder that more people didn’t rebel.
Over the centuries, millions of Ukrainians have shed their blood in defense of the idea of an independent nation. During 70 years of Soviet dictatorship, millions more kept the dream alive. This desire remains dominant among Ukrainians today.
However, threats to Ukraine’s survival are real and some of them are internal. President Victor Yushchenko warned on May 27 of the need for unity. Unfortunately, with so many politicians – including Yushchenko – putting their self interests above the national good, the idea of unity is a tough sell.
But Yushchenko’s right in saying that the weaker Ukraine is internally, the more susceptible the state is to external threats. That’s why Putin’s dangerous illusions are reminders that Ukraine should always be on guard, especially in a presidential election year, against the meddlesome neighbor.
