THE PUTIN ENIGMA AND THE BATTLE FOR RUSSIA'S SOUL

 

           Are we approaching a new chapter in Russian-American relations?  Though some American mindsets are congealed in the frigid certainty that a Russia, conceived in despotism, can never overcome its patrimony, we join those who have drawn a different conclusion.   What we are slowly witnessing, as Richard Pipes noted in 2007, is “the veritable battle for Russia´s soul.” Nowhere is this more evident than in Putin´s management of the Syrian crisis.

 

          Russia is a country geographically located between Europe and Asia.  It is also spiritually torn between the traditions of Asian despotism and its yearning to catch up with the more advanced West.  This is a key to understanding Putin, who perfectly symbolizes this duality or raskol in the Russian soul. 

 

         The Gorbachev-Yeltsin era witnessed an unparalleled blossoming of Russian freedom, a tectonic shift towards the democratic West. The experiment faltered however, in the instability of a too rapid transition and the power grabs of the federal barons.  Under Putin’s strong hand, and aided by its enormous size and intrinsic Great Power status, Russia has recovered. Yet that´s come at the high cost of Russia´s stifled freedoms.   Oddly, the Russian revolution somehow echoes the French one – a partial restoration of old regime, yet not a total reversal of the new one. 

 

          The Putin duality was clear during the Syrian crisis when he brilliantly suggested to President Obama that U.S. military force was not needed to punish Dictator Assad for gassing his own people. The gas could be placed under international control.  Lacking the support of the American people and of the Congress, Obama acquiesced.  But a question arose nonetheless in American minds.  Why does Putin uphold a butcher like Assad?

 

           Clearly, Putin owns a complexity that defies Bill O´Reilly´s characterization of him as “a KGB stooge.”  The Russian president was for many years a reformer, mentored by Yeltsin supporter Anatoly Sobchak. If he hasn´t made Russia safe for democracy, he has at least jettisoned making the world safe for Leninism. He has rather emerged as the spiritual heir of tsarist prime minister Petr Stolypin, a man who harshly dealt with dissidents but brought economic reforms to Russia. 

 

          Faithfully reflecting the ancient Russian envy of the West, Putin is also ambivalent towards us. He is well aware that America with its oil fracking technology and gas production is already challenging Russia´s position as the #1 gas exporter in Europe. Thus he sees an almost desperate need to import new American technology and make a good deal with OPEC. An equal military power with the U.S. in terms of its nuclear arsenal, yet Russia´s conventional forces, particularly its obsolete navy, is in no way competitive with ours. 

 

            So there’s likely a tinge of envy in Putin´s letter to the New York Times, where he rejects American exceptionalism. Meanwhile his vital interests in Syria are real; fears of “hundreds of militants from other countries… who may return to Russia with experience acquired in Syria.”  Yet we suspect that at a certain level he knows the importance to Russia of America’s remaining a strong superpower to assure world stability.  

 

           What troubles Americans most about him however, is the ice surrounding his realpolitik   He lacks the laurels of moral authority.  There is no sympathy whatsoever for Syria´s murdered multitudes and undernourished refugees.  His image could surely be burnished by the graceful departure of the butcher Assad in next year´s elections and the release from prison of prominent dissident Khodorkovsky. But do not expect that we will learn from him about the mysterious death of defector Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned with Polonium 210 in London.

 

           Meanwhile, his stunning diplomacy has had unintended consequences.  It has awakened the world to a realization of inestimable importance.  WMD is no longer viable as a means of settling the disputes of nations. We are all too interdependent on each other. Diplomacy is the only viable solution.  So the battle for Russia´s and Putin´s soul continues, and America wavers between admiration, uneasy hope and profound distrust.