Inside the Tyrannical Mind of Vladimir Putin

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Paranoid like Josef Stalin, and crafty like Vladimir Lenin, Russian President Vladimir Putin has his eyes on a large goal.  He is doing what he can to resurrect the old Soviet Union, with all of the communism and military power he can muster.  Putin has wrested control of the Crimean Penninsula, and has his crosshairs on East Ukraine as the world scrambles to appease him.

We are told to honor Crimea's decision, for they voted to rejoin Russia.  This is not a statement of desire, however, but a statement of survival.  The people understand that Russia had her eye on the peninsula, and as they say in the world of the Borg, resistance is futile.  So, why fight it, when you can vote Russia in to take over Crimea, as Russia was going to do anyway, but without the death and wanton destruction, and perhaps without the shock troops killing anyone who may be a dissenter.  It's a great way to live, and keep your home intact, when a hostile takeover is imminent, anyway.

The Crimeans understand Vladimir Putin in ways the American White House could never fathom.  They understand his motivation, his strategy, and his tactics.  Putin's idea of foreign policy is not with niceties, or by playing by any rule.  His drive is that he knows Russia is a nuclear superpower, and the primary player in the geographical area surrounding her borders.  In that part of the world, Russia is among the strongest politically, economically, culturally, and militarily.  Why wait for anything to develop when you have delusions of empire?

What has always held Russia back, and kept the country restrained from reaching its full empirical potential, from the viewpoint of someone like Putin, is the might of the United States.  Russia lost the Cold War, according to their perception, not because socialism is a failed system, but because the United States forced them to lose.  It's all the fault of the United States, and American might is the primary hindrance.

The light at the end of the tunnel has illuminated for hardliners like Vladimir Putin, and that shining beacon for a return to Soviet greatness is the weakness of the Obama administration.  "Finally," Putin must have finally sighed, "an American leader more like Neville Chamberlain, and less like Ronald Reagan."  And in the case of Barack Obama, the Russian President got an added bonus, because Barry's paternal roots in ant-colonialism and communism means that Barack Obama hates the American system even more than Vlad does!

With the United States now operating from a position of weakness, and Vladimir Putin certain that not only will the Americans do nothing but bark like a Chihuahua at the dog across the street from behind a window that safely separates him from his adversary, but that the nations of Europe are also weak, and uninterested in taking any real action to stop Putin from engaging in the implementation of his hardline policies, he is ready to take the next step.  The weakness of The West allows the Russian President to be far more assertive, and riskier, than his immediate predecessors.  He feels he doesn't have to dance around politics, because his opponents are weaker than he, and are pacifists that won't put up a fight.  The missile defense in Europe is being dismantled, which was the largest obstacle to Russia's nuclear superpower status, and now Vladimir is feeling dominant in his quest to resurrect the glory of what was once the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The original agreement with Ukraine by the Western Powers had been a blow to Putin's Russia.  How could they allow such a situation to arise so close to Moscow?  Ukraine had not only turned its back on socialism, but desired to be more like The West, and was even willing to seek the protection of the United States and Britain to do so.  This put a potential enemy on the backdoor of Russia's turf, and the only hope for Putin would be if the leadership of Ukraine, as Putin expected capitalists to be, would wind up corrupt, and dishonest as the greed of money and power swept through the Ukrainian government.

The fall of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was a blow to Russian plans, as well as a blessing to Putin's agenda.  He had bet on the ousted president, and it turned out to be a major political blunder.  But, the situation revealed how strong Russia is, in the mind of Putin, and how weak the opposition really is.  The political turmoil in Ukraine was akin to hitting the brights of your headlights as you travel up a lonely and frightening highway through a potentially dangerous landscape, only to find out that the lions and tigers and bears that have been threatening you, and telling you to behave, are actually only deer that have wandered onto the highway, are not sure of how they got there or how they are going to escape, and find themselves momentarily blinded by the bright beams bearing down on them.

Russia's control over what had once been the Soviet Union seemed to be waning for a moment, and it has seemed that the Ukraine had been lost to the capitalist powers of The West.  Yet, the weakness of The West may have turned things around.  The derailment of the Ukraine's journey to join Europe became a possibility, after all.  Before it was too late to stop the loss of the opportunity to remake the Soviet Union, Barack Obama, and leaders like him, gained control of the free countries in the west, and instead of an inevitable loss of Ukraine to The West, the situation has changed to a laughable situation where the only tool The West seems to be willing to use is threats of sanctions, and the laughable leaders of the capitalist countries are not even sure if they are willing to follow through with their little threats.

The weakness of Putin's opponents, combined with an economic picture that has handicapped them in ways Vladimir could only have dreamed of, has enabled Putin to get in the fight, push a few buttons, and find out that the enemy is weak, and he can do as he pleases.  He has incrementally put pressure on Ukraine, and has created enough fear that Crimea has fallen into the hands of the Russians without as much as a shot being fired.  More troops to Crimea, I suppose you could call it an occupation force, are on their way, and with nothing but a whimper from The West, troops entering Ukraine without as much as a speed bump to stop them, will likely be next.

The Western leaders, like Barack Obama, have shown Putin that they don't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to him.  They don't know what to do when a leader of another country refuses to worship the historic President of the United States.  America's diplomatic tools have become a joke, and the States across the ocean are in the process of stripping down their military to pre-World War II levels.  What has Putin to fear?

Putin has also learned tactics from his socialist brothers in The West.  Communism in an obvious application will no longer be acceptable to the Russian people.  Public opinion has become a factor in what he does.  He must incrementally apply his agenda.  Be dominant, but not dictatorial.  Don't push too hard and the people won't notice the truth.  But, at the same time, push hard enough that The West doesn't know how to react.

Putin believes he can isolate Russia from the rest of the world, but believes he can achieve his "resurrection of the Soviet Union" without necessarily creating a fully isolated environment.  Complete isolation from the world would awaken the Russian people, and Putin can't afford to do such a thing.  He has more to fear from his own citizens "waking up," than he has from a phone call from Obama begging Putin to behave.

One thing is for sure, Putin has stepped beyond the point of no return.  The Ukrainian revolution has placed a good sized monkey wrench in his plans, even though it has exposed the weaknesses of his adversaries to the west.  But the scariest part of it, is as Putin works to gain control, in many ways, the attributes of the Russian leader mirrors some of the domestic attitudes of the American President, Barack Obama.  In many ways, aside from cajones and manhood, they are a lot alike.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Putin Says U.S. guided by the rule of the gun in foreign policy - Reuters