Putin's article: Rubbing salt in the wound

In an unprecedented move in the annals of diplomacy, often a sedate, stuffed shirt and highbrow affair, the Russian President addressed the American people directly through the New York Times. Former spy and lieutenant colonel in the KGB Vladimir Putin posted his NY Times article in both Russian and English on his facebook page. Thus is the world we live in, a world of instagram, tweets, facebook, and mobile phone camera footage from laymen and women used on news broadcasts instead of real journalism.

The article was exceptional in many ways, not least of which the warnings it contained against the use of force by the US without UN Security Council authorization. Putin warned that the planned US strike against Syria would result in more innocent victims and would spread the conflict ‘far beyond Syria’s borders’ and ‘unleash a new wave of terrorism’. He pointed out that this strike could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said above all that such a strike would ‘throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.’

Putin said that when the world cannot count on international law they must find other ways to ensure their security, one of these ways can be acquiring weapons of mass destruction: “This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you.” He issued a dour warning that the UN could go the way of the ill-fated League of Nations if ‘influential’ countries took unilateral military action without Security Council authorization.

Putin lambasted the US by referring to its numerous military interventions in the internal conflicts of other nations pointing out that the world does not see the US as ‘a model of democracy’ but as a country that relies ‘solely on brute force’.

He further chided the US President Barak Obama’s reference to American exceptionalism in his recent speech to the American people in which Obama said that US policy makes America different and exceptional. To which Putin responded thus: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

For a Russian President to have to remind a US President that men are created equal must have been a bitter pill for the US President to swallow, and an African American President at that. In this Putin refers to American arrogance and paternalism when talking down to countries like Syria. But in diplomacy such barbs are all part of the repartee between heads of State I suppose.

Above all, in this article it is the Russian President that comes off looking like a reasonable and erudite peacemaker, while the US President continues to insist on disciplining Syria like some errant child. Putin, appears the bigger man and the wiser statesman, looking reasonable and convincing.

Putin continued to insist in the article that said Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multi religious country, something few American laymen and woman know or fully appreciate. He said Russia was for peaceful dialogue that would allow the Syrian people to arrive at a compromise plan to chart their own future.