On 17 March 2021, Joe Biden in a TV interview called Vladimir Putin “a killer” and a year later was shocked when Putin started killing.
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Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment changed my life. It impressed me so much, I learnt the Russian language, and ended up living in Russia for fifteen years. In its first few pages, a young and poor student Raskolnikov kills a pawnbroker, and her sister in a fit of delirium. He steals some property after the murders but hides it. Detective Pofiry regularly visits him, chats with him, and updates him on the progress of the investigation. Nikolay, a painter, confesses to the murders. Porfiry adds that he doesn’t believe the painter is the murderer.
“Who, then, do you think is the murderer?” Asks Raskolnikov.
“You Rodion Romanovitch (Raskolnikov), you are the murderer.” The detective says.
Raskolnikov is shocked beyond words. It is one thing to know inside what you are, and quite another for an outsider to tell you that. It is unlikely Joe Biden has read this novel. It is certain Vladimir Putin has, as essential reading in school.
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Putin was as stunned as Raskolnikov to hear from Biden the word “killer”. I have explained in an earlier chapter Putin wants respectability and an equal status with the American president. On 17 March 2021, Biden killed these aspirations with a single word. I will put forward a bold hypothesis that Biden calling Putin a killer was the trigger for the Ukraine invasion later.
Until then, Putin was hiding from Coronavirus, taking unprecedented precautions. Meanwhile, he had taken steps to advance his mission to become a life-long ruler of Russia. Despite high number of corona cases, he organized a national referendum from 25 June to 1 July 2020.
In a single vote, Russians were asked to confirm raising pensions and minimum wages, inserting ‘faith in god’ in the constitution, a ban on gay marriage, preserve Russian history, banning of top officials from holding dual citizenship….. and by the way, allowing Vladimir Putin to rule over Russia until 2036, till the age of 84 (for the time being). It was called the ‘term reset’, meaning the fact of his ruling for 25 years was nullified, and he became eligible afresh.
On 22 December 2020, Putin signed a bill offering former presidents and their families immunity from prosecution for crimes committed during their lifetime, exempt from questioning by police or investigations as well as searches or arrests.
With those two masterstrokes, Putin was feeling safer and better. 2020 ended well for him.
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2021 started badly. On 19 January 2021, Alexey Navalny launched on YouTube the now famous documentary “Putin’s palace”. This was followed by protests and demonstrations in Moscow, St Petersburg, and several other cities. But this was internal. Putin has long-term expertise on how to repress and crush any dissent.
And then, Joe Biden called him ‘Killer’. Putin can’t repress Joe Biden. He can only go for revenge.
On 12 July 2021, Putin published the infamous 5000-word essay nearly denying Ukraine’s existence. By November-end that year, 92,000 Russian troops had gathered on the Ukrainian border.
On 19 Jan. 2022, Joe Biden said the following: “And so, I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what he does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do.”
The rest is not history, but the devastation of Ukraine that is going on currently.
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In international relations, provoking a dictator with 6,500 nuclear warheads is not exactly diplomatic. When I saw Biden’s ‘killer’ comment, I thought it was a considered remark with plans ready for the consequences. As the subsequent months showed, the USA has opted to stand on the sidelines and let poor Ukrainians suffer, flee, be bombed, butchered. It is a massive failure on the part of Biden and the US intelligence.
Ukraine is only a battleground. Putin’s war is always with the Americans. (It is like a corporate manager who, harassed by his boss, comes home and beats his wife).
USA and UK have a contractual, legal and moral responsibility to protect Ukraine. After the collapse of USSR, Ukraine suddenly appeared as the third largest nuclear power after Russia and the USA. USA and Russia were keen to denuclearise Ukraine. In December 1994 the “Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances” was signed by Russia, Ukraine, USA (Bill Clinton) and UK (John Major).
Please read its fourth point: “Russia, UK and the USA reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate UN security council action to provide assistance to Ukraine…, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.”
Though nuclear weapons are not yet used, there is a threat that they will be used. Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have blood on their hands through inaction.
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And yesterday, Joe Biden called Putin a “War Criminal”. Again, as an afterthought. That convinced me Biden has gone senile. He will turn 80 this year and has no idea how much damage his unthinking utterances can inflict on the world.
With a single casual remark calling Putin a ‘war criminal’, Biden has managed to make the war much worse.
Ravi
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