How long and how long will the rest of the world watch Russia’s destruction of Ukraine stand still? This is the question that the former President of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has been asking herself for several days in the face of the “unbearable” images, she says, of the merciless war launched for more than 23 days by Russia against the former Soviet republic.
“Vladimir Putin feels all-powerful because the Westerners told him well before the start of his invasion that NATO was not going to intervene, summarizes in an interview with the Homework the former head of state of this Baltic country, joined by videoconference in the region of Riga, the capital. However, by insisting solely on the defense of the territory of NATO [dont l’Ukraine ne fait pas partie], the United States, the European Union and the Alliance are only handing over the Ukrainians to their fate, a fate that can only get worse. Putin is going to slaughter Ukraine before the eyes of the world. He will reduce his cities to piles of rubble. And if nobody does anything, they will feel free to go even further, to attack anyone else, except maybe a NATO country, at least I hope so. »
First woman to have acceded to the presidency of Latvia, in 1999, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga lives the Ukrainian tragedy in a deep intimacy since last February 24 and the beginning of the Russian invasion which set millions of Ukrainians in motion on the road to exile, thus awakening several traumas in her.
In 1944, the second Russian occupation of Latvia caused her family to flee, first to Germany, then Morocco and France, before arriving in Canada, where she spent most of her life. . She was a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal for more than three decades before accepting the call to run for president of her native country from many Latvians.
“I was 7 years old when we left Latvia, a stuffed animal in my hands and a little dog that we had to leave behind us, like in the images of children that we see at the moment in Ukraine and who , each time, upset me, she said. I know the suffering that flight and exile impose. It’s a trauma that never goes away. »
Under his leadership, Latvia joined the European Union in 2004, then joined NATO the same year, as a bulwark against the Russian threat, she still admits today. Threat that Vladimir Putin has never sought to conceal, moreover.
“The Latvians, the Lithuanians, the Estonians dared to ask for their independence. This is something that greatly angered Moscow. Putin told me. He thought it was a tragedy for him to see a border appear between Russia and the Baltic countries. A real independence that Ukraine was slow to exercise and for which the country is now tragically paying the price.
The contradictions of the West
“There has always been a fear among Ukrainian leaders not to provoke Russia by remaining in mid-water sitting on the fence that separates East from West,” says Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. “The Ukrainians have wasted time” getting closer to the European Union and NATO, and especially to do so while Russia was still in a weak state militarily after the fall of the Soviet Union. “They relied on their good relationship with Moscow and above all on the commitment that Russia, like the United States and the United Kingdom, had made to protect its sovereignty and its independence against the abandonment in 1994 of its weapons. nuclear. And now Ukraine faces an unprecedented threat of disappearance. »
According to her, on the way to war a huge number of mistakes were made, including by Westerners, who for years have been trying not to disturb Russia. “Jacques Chirac told me so when the Baltic countries moved closer to NATO. He feared it would offend Putin. We acted with him as with an uncle from whom we expect an inheritance. But what is Russia? He is above all an imaginary invalid, next to whom one walks on tiptoe. And all this for what ? »
“In 2008, the West allowed the invasion of Georgia [dont 20 % du territoire est occupé par la Russie], we left Crimea and Donbass to their own devices and now Vladimir Putin believes he can do anything. The fault started in 2014 in Ukraine too. If we had reacted a little better by arming the country more and preparing its army even better, we might not be where we are today, continues the former head of state. Instead, France and Germany continued to sell arms to Russia between 2014 and 2020.” A trade that became embarrassing the day after the outbreak of this conflict, but which Emmanuel Macron admitted this week while specifying that it was done in accordance with “international law”. “It is these weapons that are now being used against the civilian population in Ukraine. It’s totally grotesque,” continues M.me Vīķe-Freiberga, who judges with a certain irony the displayed fear of Western countries not to get too involved in the conflict to avoid an “escalation”.
“While we wonder what is interference and what is not, for Putin, the weapons that are sent to Ukraine are already a mark of the involvement of Westerners in the conflict, says -she. We are afraid that he will react badly. But that’s already what he does. It is feared that it will become dangerous. But it already is. At any time, he will be able to consider that it is interference ”and derail a confrontation which, day after day, sinks a little more into horror.
And with what outcome? “We are at an impasse, she admits, faced with a paranoid Russian president who lives in the belief that the rest of the world despises Russia, that Westerners do not respect it and above all do not fear it enough. He goes wild, because he feels he has his hands free to do so. And everything he says is disturbing. He talks about chemical weapons, accusing the Ukrainians of having them. A scenario that played out in Syria before Bashar al-Assad used it against opponents of his regime. “He says he wants to initiate purges against people who, he says, physically live in Russia, but whose mentality is in the West. The purges are Stalin. Taking territory is Hitler,” she adds while recalling the episode of the Sudetenland which, in 1938, preceded the start of the Second World War. Germany then invaded this German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia to supposedly save the inhabitants.
“Neville Chamberlain [alors premier ministre britannique] did not react, she said. We know the rest. »
When asked if there is a way out in the ongoing conflict, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga said: “We must start with a ceasefire, to at least put an end to the death of civilians, but for the solution , it is the Ukrainians who will have to decide. “And when asked if a skid is possible, she pauses, then answers calmly: “Yes. There is a risk. And that’s a horrible possibility to imagine. »