In a column for the conservative Bulwark, political observer Brian Stewart claimed that pundits who are speculating that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be in mental decline are not only wrong, but have forgotten his recent depredations and how he got away with them.
As Stewart explains, Putin has been unrestrained during his entire presidency as western leaders have talked tough but looked the other way due to financial considerations. That, in turn, had led the Russian strongman to add to both his empire and his personal wealth.
Writing, "With Ukraine under full-scale assault, a slew of leaders, journalists, and intellectuals in the West have suggested that we are witnessing an act of delusional Russian folly. This chorus alleges that by ordering his military forces to expand the irregular war he has prosecuted against Ukraine since 2014, the Russian dictator has taken leave of his senses," Stewart swiftly dismissed that belief out of hand by adding, "For the sake of a newly imperiled world order, this notion of Putin’s insanity must be promptly discarded before it congeals into conventional wisdom."
According to the columnist, for years Putin has made no secret of his "imperial ambitions" and never "incurred meaningful reprisals from the West, so he proceeds with justified confidence that he may never face concerted or forceful resistance."
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"For two decades and counting, Putin has intermittently been condemned in the councils of Western governments for various depredations, but he has been consistently rewarded for his bellicosity," he explained while noting western countries were more interested in trade deals than confrontation.
"Even as he directed his intelligence services to sow disorder in the political systems of the West, scarcely any price was exacted for his extraordinarily brazen campaign of information warfare. GDP growth and partisan pique were too important to sacrifice to abstract concepts like the defense of democracy," he continued.
As Stewart wrote, the west's continual kowtowing to Putin practically invited him to invade Ukraine.
"On the available evidence, Putin bears every sign of being a supremely rational creature. His long tenure has been marked by cool calculation and acts of inching ever closer to his objective of overthrowing the post-Cold War settlement and restoring Russia’s historical sphere of influence. His record of aggression and provocation has seldom been countered, let alone decisively checked," he wrote before suggesting, "And so, the question is not why he is now waging a full-fledged war against Ukraine. The question, given the mingled complacency and greed of the free world, is: Why on earth wouldn’t he?"
You can read more here.
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