Tag: putin

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No One Trusts Russia (Putin)

Source: Poland and Baltic nations plan to withdraw from landmine convention | Reuters

Withdrawing from the international land mine treaty is no small commitment. Land mines are considered counterproductive because they cause massive costs in civilian casualties and removal costs for decades after the conflict for which they were deployed. It is an emphatic statement of distrust in Vladimir Putin that the Baltic states and Poland are electing to leave the international land mine treaty. The Baltics and Poland are declaring that they anticipate a Russian invasion and that they will go to any length to thwart the Russian invasion. They are clearly under no illusion that Putin is a trustworthy leader who will conform to international laws and treaties that he signs.

NATO members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines due to the military threat from their neighbour Russia, the four countries said on Tuesday.

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For Russia Peace is a Deadly Precipice

Source: Breakingviews: Russia’s economy would struggle to cope with peace

The wartime economy poses an addiction akin to heroin, or even alcohol, withdrawal from which is attended by pain so severe that the addict relapses: resorts to feeding the addiction rather than leaving it. In the excellent analysis linked above, Russia–Putin–finds itself at a painful crossroads. Fighting further erodes the civilian economy further, but opting for peace puts enormous pressure on the government to help rebuild the civilian economy quickly enough to keep social unrest at bay. Key to such a rebuilding program is accountability on behalf of corporations and government. Such accountability is simply nonexistent in Russia, and it behooves Putin and his cronies to fight for “victory” in Ukraine rather than risk exposing Russians to the rampant culture of corruption in Russia. (Alternately and charitably, risk Russians lose in the world economy because they have become dependent on the wartime economic cocaine.)

Dreams of empire comprise the most powerful and most perverse intellectual opiate. Democracies that fail to exclude empire addicts from their leadership will sadly fail.