What does Alexander Finnegan think of Vladimir Putin?

I was asked this question a long time ago. I never answered it. Why? Because it is important to me that I am fair. The question of Vladimir Putin is an interesting one to me, because of his unique connection to both the Soviet Union, to Russia, and to the modern day. I honestly didn’t have a strong opinion about him, positive or negative, until recently. I didn’t feel like I understood him. He is kind of a difficult person to initially grasp. He isn’t particularly expressive. He is reserved and stoic.

My hero has always been Joseph Stalin. I won’t get into that here because I have written about him extensively. Vladimir Putin has been around for a long time, in my lifetime. I am old enough to remember back to Gorbachev meeting with Reagan. I remember Yeltsin on TV, laughing with Clinton, probably about how fucked the Russian people were going to soon be. And then it was Putin.

Since I don’t speak Russian, I haven’t paid much attention to Putin’s facial expressions because I usually am reading the translation at the bottom of the screen. His latest speech, related to the issues in the Ukraine, was 50 minutes long. I read the speech online, as I can read much faster than I can watch. This was a different experience. Because I watched his face, very closely. And it was a different kind of speech for him. He was much more passionate than normal. You could tell he felt very strongly. He also appeared a bit more anxious as he watched his ministers deliver their short speeches. Clearly this was weighing on him. This was serious. I also felt a brief window into the man was opened. Same thing with the other remarks he made yesterday, encouraging members of the Ukrainian military to surrender and switch sides. Putin also thanked his military service members for their professionalism and service. When he spoke about getting rid of the Nazis in the Ukraine, I could tell he meant it.

Putin is a very risk-averse person unless something is very important. He is not some thrill seeker. He takes calculated risks, and goes hard if he has to. He’s no Teddy Roosevelt.

I have spent many years reading about the history of Russia, then the Soviet Union, and then Russia, back again. My wife and I are friends with some Eastern Orthodox female monastics. My experience of Russian people has been very positive. They are traditional, family oriented, but practical, too. If any group of people would take to Marxism-Leninism, it was them, as there are some overlaps in values given the religious tradition. Because I did not grow up in Russia, I can never know what it means to be a “real” Russian. But I am sort of an “honorary” Russian. An Irish-Russian, if you will. The Russian people have are a long suffering people, with a very tough history. You don’t survive in a frontier culture if you are weak. This is also how they survived the Nazi onslaught. It is how they survived the absolute hell of the fall of the Soviet Union.

One thing I am no stranger too, however, is the mentality of the West. I know this story all too well. In particular, I know the brutish and psychopathic bloodlust of the cowboy mentality. Or the sanctimoniousness of a culture over the pond who was used to having colonies. WWI was instructive. You don’t defeat an enemy and not permit them to stand back up. You can’t expect them to crawl forever. But Germany was expected to do so. Left humiliated, defeated, starving and destitute, they turned to Hitler. And he unleashed the demon. Sometimes, in war, you must apply maximum brutality to defeat your enemy. But this should only be when absolutely necessary. Nobody wants that. The West never learns these lessons. Like a bunch of ghouls, it lied and pressed its advantage until the Soviet Union fell, largely due to years of decay as a result of increasing “market reforms” after Stalin died. Gorbachev was a force all his own. He systematically destroyed the Soviet Union, virtually overnight. The suffering his people encountered was unspeakable. An entire generation of lives were ruined, millions of girls sexually trafficked, drugs, crime, and utter despair.

Yeltsin did this. The descendent of a kulak, he took corruption to a new level. And he and the oligarchs looted the public means of production like jackals. These would become the oligarchs. Russians see the Yeltsin period as the darkest in memory. No words can describe it. And most would rather do anything than go back to it. But years of alcoholism and age caught up with Yeltsin. A former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin, would take his place.

Putin was able to tame the oligarchs, or at least create a détente. Their capitalist interests would be protected while he would have the power to govern in a semi-democratic manner. Putin kept the trains running on time. And when the oil prices went up in the early 2000’s, Putin was able to reinstate some of the more important parts of the social safety net. Housing was still expensive, and pay wasn’t sky high, but it was livable — far better than under Yeltsin. Yeltsin was the era of austerity as imposed by the neoliberal “Harvard Boys” from the U.S. George Soros came in to pick the bones of the living, too.

The elder statesman at the top of his game, Mr. Putin:

1. Ended the bloody Syrian Civil War by defeating the ISIS fighters trained by Obama’s CIA. This war caused the refugee crisis in Europe.
2. Put military in Venezuela during the Trump coup with Juan Guaido, preventing it from succeeding.
3. Is now liberating Donbass from the state-sponsored terrorism campaign against it.
4. Is protecting the Russian people by demilitarizing Ukraine, denazifiying it, and preventing it from joining NATO.
5. Restored the lost social services to the Russian people and got the trains running on time. He brought dignity back to Russian life.

The elder statesman at the top of his game, Vladimir Putin.