Until the EuroMaidan Revolution that ended President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule in 2014, Ukraine was an international backwater few in America at least had ever heard of. But now the nation has suddenly become a catalyst as the remaining fragments of democracy in Russia are stomped out and as the American political system is bastardized. And Ukraine has even been thrust — tragically, with the loss of 176 lives — into the nascent democratic movement in Iran.
When Vladimir Putin sent his hackers and trolls to support Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and when Trump praised and kowtowed to Putin, some of Trump’s opponents suggested that he was a Russian intelligence asset. Putin may have some first-rate dirt on Trump, but the more alarming truth is that the two men are very much alike. By following his natural instincts, Trump is creating a political system in America that eerily resembles Russia.
Last week Putin staged a constitutional coup in Russia, ensuring that the only way he will leave power peacefully is feet first. In the United States, a constitutional coup was unthinkable only three years. Now, a creeping constitutional coup is a reality. What Putin did was merely a legal confirmation of processes under way in Russia for the past two decades. Likewise, whatever changes in the vaunted American Constitution may eventually be made will grow directly out of the catastrophic failure of the system of checks and balances and the evisceration of civil society.
Start with corruption at the top. That Putin has created a massive kleptocracy which puts to shame places like Nigeria is a well-established fact. He and his henchmen are robbing Russia blind. It is, however, unprecedented for a president of the United States to enrich himself and his family while in office.
There are stark parallels between the two. Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov got to be a billionaire while Trump’s, Jared Kushner, was saved from imminent bankruptcy by his father-in-law’s elevation to the presidency. Middle Eastern potentates currying favor with the White House have bailed him out.
In Russia, Alexey Navalny and other corruption fighters regularly expose the misdeed of Putin’s entourage, facing harassment and persecution. In the U.S., Trump and his supporters attack the free press, the cornerstone of every functional democracy, as enemies of the people, ominously echoing Josef Stalin.
But Putin’s and Trump’s crowd don’t care. Let them enrich themselves, they say, as long as the economy booms. Indeed, relative prosperity accompanied Putin’s rule in the first decade and a half of this century and it is in evidence in the U.S. today. However, neither the run-up in oil prices nor the extended rally on Wall Street that underpins their economic success had anything to do with their actual policies. On the contrary, by creating a pervasive climate of corruption and hollowing our government institutions the two leaders are laying a foundation for a major economic disaster of the future.
America is not yet as thoroughly corrupt as Russia but it’s getting there. Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is a transportation secretary in the Trump Administration and has allegedly steered lucrative government contracts to her relatives. An unprecedented number of Trump cabinet members have resigned under a cloud of corruption and misuse of office, and lobbyists permeate his administration at every level.
Self-enrichment in both countries goes on under slogans of patriotism — or rather nationalism, jingoism, and hatred of outsiders. In America men who blatantly harm their own country never appear in public without a U.S. flag on their lapel.
While government institutions have been gutted, courts have been politicized in both Russia and the US. In Russia, their independence has always been rather notional, but in the U.S., Trump and the Senate have now stuffed the judiciary with political hacks, some of whom are also incompetent.
Their countries’ armed forces are also getting a lot of attention from the two leaders. Putin loves “unique,” “never before seen” and “invincible” military hardware, whereas Trump dreams of military parades. Military budgets have been growing. Yet, their use for the military is very similar. Putin’s soldiers are committing war crimes in Ukraine and Syria while Trump pardons convicted war criminals in the U.S. armed forces. Neither is good for the long-term future of their militaries.
Both governments rely on TV propaganda, and America’s Fox News cable station seems to be taking lessons from Putin’s Russia Today, Channel 1 and NTV. Overall, lies emanating from the Russian government are more plentiful and blatant than anything Goebbels would have deemed acceptable, whereas Trump, with his 15,000 lies in the first 1,000 days in office, far outstripped even Putin.
Both governments clearly believe that the pervasiveness of corruption, the number of crimes and scandals and the frequency of lies will end up overwhelming the public capacity for outrage and normalizing criminal behavior.
Both regimes surround themselves with the trappings of Christianity which are utterly sanctimonious and hypocritical. To call Putin’s ex-Communist kleptocrats Christian is a sacrilege, and, similarly, Trump’s evangelicals condone his sins while constantly lying and hating. Vice President Mike Pence is Exhibit One of such behavior by pseudo-Christians.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most ardent supporters of both regimes are drawn from the ranks of the deplorables who are harmed the most by their policies.
And then there are the elites who are their beneficiaries. Given their criminality, the failure of the institutions of government and the anger brewing among the masses, they need to hold on to power at all costs just to survive. In Russia, they have known it for a long time, and certainly since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine, while in the U.S. it is something that they are starting to realize only now. This is why the Republicans in the Senate are very unlikely to convict and remove Trump for trying to blackmail the government of Ukraine.
Both Russian kleptocrats and American political and economic elites realize that their survival. crucially depends on the survival of the current regime. Obviously, their own hides are more important to the thieving Russian officials than democracy, but in the U.S., too, the integrity of elections and the sanctity of the one person one vote principle have been thrown out the window. Trump’s impeachment hinges on his attempt to subvert the 2020 election, but his allies among elected officials couldn’t care less that the American democracy is being subverted.
So far, it has been all about Ukraine inadvertently exposing the corruption, the amorality, and degradation of the current regimes in Russia and the U.S. But there is also a glimmer of hope. It is the protest movement against the execrable medieval regime in Iran which got a new lease on life after the Ayatollahs were caught lying to the country about the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
