Piers Akerman: ‘Murderous thug’ Vladimir Putin must be stopped
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s claim to be uniting the Russian people is just another of his lies. Western powers must stop his murderous march on Ukraine, Piers Akerman writes.
Opinion
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine was not a surprise. It was certainly not unthinkable.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is a pathological murderous thug who hasn’t hesitated to have opponents imprisoned or poisoned and has an established record of invading other former Soviet satellites, Crimea in May, 2014, and Georgia, in August 2008.
Both were independent sovereign states after the dissolution of the Soviet empire and posed no threat to Russia.
After months of preparation, Putin launched the biggest attack on a European state since World War II last week, killing hundreds and creating a wave of refugees trying to flee to neighbouring nations – not Russia.
The majority of Ukrainians don’t want to be associated with Russia. They enjoy vastly more freedoms than Russians and have a stronger, less corrupt economy.
Putin’s claim to be uniting the Russian people is just another of his lies and there have been plenty.
University of Melbourne’s Dr Sara Meger, a lecturer in international relations, is one so-called expert who didn’t see it coming.
As she wrote before the missiles started to rain death upon the military and civilians, “it seems unlikely that we will see an invasion of Ukraine by Russia anytime soon, as the US administration has been anticipating”.
The University of Melbourne has great form in promoting such academics and Dr Meger follows in the footsteps of another of the university’s controversial figures, historian and author Bruce Pascoe, in promulgating fantasies.
“Ukrainians have a separate language, culture and history from Russia, and have made it clear that they have no interest in a Russian-style regime,” Thor Halvorssen, the chief executive of the Human Rights Foundation in New York said.
“Putin considers a democratic Ukraine to be a grave threat to his dictatorial regime simply because it shows ethnic Russians that democracy is a viable alternative. It’s time to make Putin pay for his murderous, self-centred and imperialistic behaviour.”
Halvorssen says the besieged Ukrainian government needs urgent financial support to allow it to continue functioning as a legitimate government despite the invasion. He asks that all Russian ambassadors be declared persona non grata and that Russia be expelled from international organisations like INTERPOL and the Council of Europe.
He recommends sanctions against the entire Navalny 35 – a group of Russian kleptocrats, propagandists and human rights abusers – and their family members. Putin has amassed massive personal wealth through the network of oligarchs he has sponsored.
To hit him and his supporters, Russia should be cut off from the SWIFT international banking system, imposing serious economic costs on Russia.
China, waiting like a crocodile on the sidelines with a mind to its own ambition of capturing the free, sovereign nation of Taiwan, is the only major power not to condemn Russia’s actions.
The weak-kneed NATO nations must accept some blame for their lack of military preparedness.
Even the chief of the German army, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, has vented his frustration over what he sees as the long-running neglect of military readiness in his country, in an unusual public rant a few hours after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“In my 41st year of peacetime service, I would not have thought that I would have to experience a war,” he said on Thursday.
“And the Bundeswehr, the army which I have the honour to command, is standing there more or less empty-handed. The options we can offer the government in support of the alliance are extremely limited.”
The West looks pathetically indecisive in the face of the Russian aggression. Without urgent action, will NATO nations – European nations like Poland, Finland and the Baltic nations – be targeted next by this maniac in his rush to rebuild the Russian Empire?
Former Russian chess grandmaster and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation Garry Kasparov says: “Letting Putin crush Ukraine and murder thousands of innocents in a European war of conquest will redefine the world order. So would stopping him.
“We choose by action or inaction which world we want to live in.”
Those fleeing Ukraine know which world they prefer. The free one.
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