Illegitimate Interests: Putin’s Apologists
Rachel Moltz
Tue, 01/31/2023 – 13:41
Apparently in thrall to a neo-Freudian death wish, self-loathing scholars, self-adoring media figures, and fringe politicians in the West continue to serve up geopolitical leftovers long since gone rotten concerning Russia’s president and aspirant czar, Vladimir Putin: Putin must not be humiliated…Russia has legitimate regional interests…Moscow has valid security interests…and, of course, Ukraine is corrupt, unlike the immaculate Third Rome to its north and east…
This is bullshit.
First, insisting that we not tread upon Putin’s delicate feelings is equivalent to claiming that we should have taken Hitler’s emotional vulnerability into account and stopped at the Rhine as the Second World War neared its end. We must not pander to Putin. He is a mass murderer on a grand scale and an aggressor whose like we have not seen within or on the fringes of Europe since the Third Reich. Putin must not only be defeated utterly, he must be tried for his crimes, should genuine Russian patriots not kill him first.
As for Moscow’s “legitimate security interests,” our Putin-worshippers mean that Russia deserves the right to dictate the fates of all countries large or small on its borders—in essence, we should …read more
Source:: Hoover Institution
