Russia-Ukraine war, yet one must also deal with the aggressor Putin
In a war like the one that has been going on for over sixteen months between Russia and Ukraine which brings death and devastation and threatens peace in Europe and in the world, there is nothing worse than just blaming the aggressor, i.e. Putin, who are given only one possibility: to raise the white flag or, conversely, to split hairs in two: “Neither with Moscow nor with the USA and the EU”. Of course, history teaches that in the face of the devastating ideological intransigence of a dictatorial regime (for example Hitler’s Nazi regime) which proceeds with armed invasions, there is no other way out than the final showdown, with millions of dead and immense devastation. Today, with the long shadow of the atomic bomb, this would lead to the end of humanity.
If only the path of unconditional surrender is left to the “enemy”, that enemy will continue to carry on his war, no matter what. The military and economic aid that the West, the US and the EU, are giving to Ukraine attacked by Russia and the sanctions against Moscow are just but must not go beyond the “local” fact, much less consider them a tool to overthrow the Putin regime. Having cheered, because this was the case on the part of the USA, EU and Italy, with the mutineers of Prigozhin’s Wagner division who passed in an amen from the status of neo-Nazi criminals to that of patriots, certain that with their occupation of Moscow and the deposition of Putin would have forced Russia to end the war in Ukraine, it was naivety, worse, a political mistake for which the consequences will be paid.
At present, it is unthinkable to oust Putin from the outside, still less to assume that via Putin, Russia will become a liberal democracy. The risk is that of falling from the frying pan into the fire, with an even less democratic Russia inside and even more imperialist outside, or in the total chaos of a civil war with the buttons of the atomic bombs in the hands of who knows who. History teaches that democracy cannot be exported and that every country brings with it everything that came before, on an ideal, cultural, religious, social, political and institutional level.
What does it mean? That the EU, the USA, the West have done well and are doing well to “help” in every way the Ukraine attacked by Putin’s Russia, also to safeguard the heritage of freedom and Western democratic rights.
However, one cannot limit oneself to waiting for Putin’s defeat, military as well as political. A more accentuated and more articulated international diplomatic capacity is needed, even with non-democratic governments, in seeking alliances. We also need to move everything that can be moved to get signals to the Kremlin, respecting the existing tenant obtorto collo. If to put an end to the war in Ukraine one thinks of waiting for a regime change in Moscow then one must take into account the risk that the war will not end soon, it will not limit itself to remaining closed where it is today. The mission of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to Moscow on 28 and 29 June, beyond the specific results, is a positive fact, if only because it forces the Kremlin not to close all doors to mediators, accepting even the most “inconvenient” ones such as the representatives of the Holy See can be. Putin, absorbed in managing the consequences of the murky story of the failed attempt at armed rebellion by Prigozhin’s troops, washed his hands of it: he ignored Cardinal Zuppi, however making him meet with his presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov and not asking the veto on the meeting of the Pope’s envoy with Marija L’vova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights, with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court on charges of forced deportations to Russia of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov closed the matter: “There are no specific decisions or agreements. There are no conditions for a negotiated peace”.
In this context, the dialogue between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow continues with the disreputable and even less credible Kirill. The positions on the “just war” of the head of the Orthodox Church have long been known with the invitation to the Russians to fight against Zelensky, siding fully alongside Putin, defined as a “miracle of God”. “Go courageously to fulfill your military duty – Kirill said some time ago to the young Russians – and remember that if you die for your country, you will be with God in his kingdom, glory and eternal life”. How can one converse with Kirill, a lover of luxury with personal assets of around 4 billion dollars (Forbes 2020 data) suspected of being the fictitious owner of assets of Putin, Lavrov and others, with bank accounts in Italy, Austria, Spain, that insists on the existence of a “demon West” to fight against and against which any imperialist and expansionist ambition is legitimate? Here we are. Perhaps some fruit of these meetings of Cardinal Zuppi in Moscow will soon be seen on the “humanitarian level”. Little? Better than nothing. As in all wars, even in this devastating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, every slightest attempt must be taken to lead to a glimmer of encounter between the parties, an attempt towards peace. To the “de noantri” pacifists, anti-Americans who have remained tied to the myth of Vietnam who confuse aggressors and attacked who always make a thousand distinctions on the values of liberal democracies and who, once again, are certain that “after all, Putin has his reasons”, that “it is all the fault of the Western world”, one can only say: that’s enough, shut up! You’ve never nailed one.
Subscribe to the newsletter