No.237 - Слава України! (slava ookrayeeny) "Glory to Ukraine!"

Dear James,

Vladimir Putin has made a massive strategic error. To his surprise, the Ukrainians are fighting back. Even if they are eventually overcome they will revert to a major insurgency which will impact Russia for many years to come. The US and EU have announced devastating sanctions that will hit 70% of Russia’s banking sector. Today’s inclusion of the SWIFT banking system in the sanctions will further isolate them. On Friday night the UN Security Council resolution, put forward by the Ukraine, was vetoed by Russia in the face of 66 nations for and three, including China, abstaining. Yesterday Victor Orban, until now a close backer of Putin, changed sides and supported the Ukrainians. Perhaps one of the most dramatic changes of all has been Germany’s decision to supply 1000 anti-tank weapons and 500 stinger anti-aircraft rockets into a war zone for the first time since the Second World War. As the eerie sound of air raid sirens wail over the empty streets of Kyiv  the airwaves are full of images of women and children fleeing the Ukraine while their husbands are returning to Kyiv to give their lives. Very soon the Russian aggressors may be in the city. We must be prepared for bad news over the coming days but in the long run, Putin has made a huge blunder. He is isolated and unmasked by his manic speech last Tuesday. Overnight he has become an international pariah.

Unfortunately, we also know that Putin is a killer. Remember the pictures of Grozny back in the 1990s? A city reduced to rubble and a population decimated by Putin’s forces. Remember Boris Nemtsov, murdered outside the Kremlin in 2015? Remember Salisbury? Today, the killer is both fully exposed and cornered. That makes him more dangerous than ever. For the moment, the Kremlin keeps up its front of disinformation and bravado through the state run media. Be sure, however, within those benighted walls, Putin and his cronies are very worried. All is not well in the Kremlin. The pictures last Tuesday of Putin sat before his National Security officials to demand votes of loyalty from each, said it all. Individuals were clearly uncomfortable, some even stuttering before those blank, cold eyes. For the last twenty two years, they’ve been forced to run the Putin playbook of lies and threats but perhaps now they can see the result? Their comfortable world has been shaken by Putin overreach. The Ukrainian situation is entirely of his making. By his actions, Putin has massively damaged his nation’s future and probably signed his own death warrant. The latter won’t happen tomorrow or even within a year or two. But, in terms of his international standing, it has already happened.

Putin’s ‘toxic masculinity’ is written into his face. He is a damaged individual, paranoid, defensive, vicious and vengeful. When he speaks the small muscles around his nose quiver and his blank, grey eyes narrow. He becomes the human symbol of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile locked into its trajectory and target with no glimmer of a human soul in its warhead. As a ‘loner’, to fill the space of his empty soul, he adopts the crazed notions of a great Russian empire, a nationalistic Orthodox church and the idea of the collapse of the Soviet Union as being ‘the greatest geo-political disaster of his lifetime’. His only response to crisis is escalate, escalate, escalate. And we all know where that leads. Vladimir  lives in his own version of reality.

To borrow from physics however, each political force is opposed by a countervailing force and against Putin a new hero has emerged. Volodimyr Zelensky, President of the Ukraine, has burst onto the international stage by fighting for Kyiv both literally and metaphorically. Offered evacuation out of the country by the U.S., he answered, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” His courage and determination have captured the imagination of people around the world. Democracies everywhere have suddenly found their voice and cohesion. Authoritarianism is being trumped by the power of real people. The Ukraine has become an icon of courage and principle. Britain 1940 has been trumped by Ukraine 2022. A long and difficult road lies ahead but you and your government, James, must ensure that Britain is not found wanting in this ultimate clash between democracy and authoritarianism. I trust that you’re listening?

Слава України! (slava ookrayeeny) "Glory to Ukraine!" 

BH - Your Concerned Constituent