Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked and horrified the world. However, it has had the positive affect of bringing nations, leaders and people together. Russians have gathered by the tens of thousands to protest the invasion, risking arrest – and often getting arrested – for expressing their sentiments. Companies are refusing to do business with Russia so Russian companies can neither sell goods nor get necessary raw materials. The global banking system SWIFT is contemplating kicking Russian banks out. Already, Russian citizens are stampeding to make withdrawals from their accounts.
So far, looks as though sanctions are working. Russia’s economy is (ahem!) tanking as more and more countries and companies impose sanctions – even legendarily neutral Switzerland has joined this party. The Russian stock market is in a tailspin as Russian businesses are being cut out of international trade. Athletic competitions have banned Russians from competing. Not only that, many Russian tycoons are breaking ranks with the Kremlin and calling for an end to this war; some have even fled Russia. Putin may have started strong, but he’s running out of allies and resources.
Meanwhile, governments, NGOs and individual citizens around the world are supplying Ukraine with humanitarian relief and offering to take in refugees. Soldiers from some countries are volunteering to help the Ukrainians fight back. The Russian military has encountered resistance that is probably fiercer than what they anticipated. Indeed, Ukraine could turn out to be a tar baby as Afghanistan was for the Soviet Union a generation ago.
Putin clearly has issues, probably including a Napoleon complex. He is a creature of the old KGB who apparently wants to restore the power and glories of Imperial Russia. Like Hitler laying claim to majority-German parts of Europe, so Putin is trying to grab any land that he perceives as being rightfully Russian.
As if Putin’s lunacy isn’t bad enough, prominent Republicans and right-wingers have not just defended but even praised his actions. Trump’s reaction to the Ukrainian invasion was nothing short of jaw-dropping. Not only that, righties are accusing Biden of being soft, when in fact he had some very stern words for Putin.
What do the righties want – all-out war? Blood and guts and the planet reduced to cinders too radioactive for even cockroaches? We need to give sanctions a chance to bleed and cripple Putin’s Russia so we can bring the bloodshed to an end. Russia can’t wage war for long if it has no money to pay its military or buy weapons. Sanctions will take a while to work, so we need to be patient.
Already some people are having nightmares about mushroom clouds. Fear of nuclear escalation is not entirely unfounded. Putin is a child of the Soviet era and the Cold War when kids practiced duck-and-cover at school and people dug bomb shelters in their back yards. Some fear that Putin is just nuke-happy enough that he will decide, if he cannot dominate the world, there won’t be anything left to dominate.
Only time will tell if Ukraine is the beginning of the end for Putin. In the meantime, we need to use sanctions to choke off his military, and diplomacy to try to make him see his folly and realize it is in his, and Russia’s, interest to withdraw from Ukraine. Putin may be crazy, but he isn’t stupid.
Let us hope for the best – and pray.
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