PART 4
The images (in one, Mr. Putin sat at one end of a very long table and all his aides lumped together at the other end, in the other picture, he sat alone at a table in a huge room and everybody else was standing against the opposite wall far away from him) seem to support the speculation that Mr. Putin has increasingly acted in a dictatorial manner, not consulting with anyone in a meaningful manner. The huge spaces between Mr. Putin and his aides shown in the pictures give the impression of his being aloof and alone.
It is difficult to think that the Russians, among the most intelligent people on earth, did not see that an invasion of Ukraine would be a terrible and unforgivable decision. Mr. Putin’s aides, or some of them who had the courage, must have advised against such move. Obviously, if that was the case, Mr. did not listen.
Why there are people who still think that their thinking or actions are perfect needing no improvement? That is the belief of dictators of the world, people with power. They don’t listen to others, ignoring Confucius’s saying that if I walk with three other people, one of them can be my teacher. It’s regrettable that Mr. Putin has fallen into that crack as he had shown a tremendous ability to think rationally and reasonably.
He probably is the victim of the Russian political tradition restraining him and everyone else who wants to move up the Russian leadership: fighting ferociously and preemptively, giving your opponent no chance to raise its head. If your opponent emerges through your no mercy strike, you just resign to the fact that it is just a game, albeit a deadly game. You must just constantly look over your shoulder. You trust anyone, even your closest aide, at your peril. Mr. Putin at one time seemed to disagree with that tradition and try to embrace Democracy [people in a Democracy do stab others in their back too but with finesse, more humanly, fairly and artistically (here again in need of a better word)]. He saw that Democracy made political sense. But the Russian system is never a good soil for Democracy to grow. Even after Glasnost, it has made no progress on the ability to listen to different opinions without getting into a rage. It did not allow Mr. Putin to pursue Democracy without endangering himself.
It is not farfetched to speculate that Mr. Putin did not have a free give and take discussion before ordering the attack on Ukraine. That is his mission and the mission of other Russian likeminded politicians. They felt incumbent on themselves to make the decision to attack and let no one present an alternative. That passionate sense of mission has caused them to lose patience and commit a huge misstep.
He overlooked two crucial and possibly decisive factors: the will of the Ukrainians to resist his quest to dominate them and the U.S. and Western Europe’s strategy to deal with his country post-Afghanistan.
(Next, Part 5)
