13 Oct 2016.
Michael Burleigh | The Times
The arrogance of the West has created a Russian monster
“Instead of hastily dismiss Putin as a tyrant from nepertraukiamas, we should recognize that in many respects he is our creature,” says a British writer and historian Michael Burleigh in an article for the Times.
“The loss of the Empire, which for the UK and France was painful, but stretched on a century process, Russia has occurred almost overnight, when in 1991 the Soviet Union broke up, the article says. – For those who sincerely believed in the Soviet system, this shock was huge. One of these people was major Vladimir Putin, who served in the provincial Department of the KGB in Dresden. Faced with angry crowd, he called headquarters in East Berlin and asked for instructions. “Moscow is silent,” was the answer. Looking back on these events in 2005, Putin said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the XX century”.
“In the face of growing instability Putin has swapped allegiance to Yeltsin’s liberal reforms focus on the cocktail of moral conservatism, Orthodoxy and military power – and has found some support among ordinary Russians, overfed Cesnauskis arrogance of the West. After the demonstration of unilateral US forces went to pieces in Afghanistan and Iraq, Putin has decided to draw a border around Russia, using the point of view of its population that the West is in decline and can not eradicate the Islamist threat,” says Burley.
“An armed clash between the West and Russia over Syria is fraught with way out of control. Condemning, of course, bloody Putin’s behavior in insulting terms, the British parliamentarians may feel better, but it does not help to change his setup. Instead, we must draw a clear “red lines” – from the independence of the Baltic States to the unacceptability of cyber warfare,” advises the author. “Reducing our dependence on the Russian energy sector through alternative energy sources is vital to the Kremlin became more difficult to demand the ransom,” he adds.
Source: The Times
http://www.inopressa.ru/article/13Oct2016/times/putin_rus.html
