My dear Vladimir, I have a big problem… that you are starting to solve: who do you look like the most? Hitler, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible?
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
The latter is not the weight; moreover the name Grozny means “dreadful” more than terrible and then it recalls the capital of Chechnya whose demolition is as much the initial product of Yeltsin as the completion of Putin. In addition, to gouge out the eye of its architect so that he does not reproduce the marvelous cathedral of the Intercession elsewhere is only a – painful – proof of the esteem that the Tsar held for him… other manners!
Stalin as a competitor is quite tough, no doubt. Under his leadership, we are talking about 20 million deaths, all criteria combined, civilian and military, 10 million in the horror of the purges and 10 million in the revered honor of a brutal and inhuman war. The crimes committed were revealed by Nikita Khrushchev, including the great famine in Ukraine, “Holodomor”, a harmonious mixture of famine and murder imposed by the dictator because the Ukrainians refused collectivization.
These Ukrainians are unbearable, they still prove it today. They resist like the Gallic village of Asterix and Obelix and they don’t have Panoramix’s magic potion. The result: 4 million dead, 15% of the population… But the world forgave Stalin because, without him, the Second World War would have lasted considerably longer. This is what French President Emmanuel Macron recalled when he spoke of the common war effort to end Hitler’s madness and called on the Russian people to remember the common values that their president flouts.
But Putin is something else because we are in a different and transparent time which, surprisingly, far from reinforcing the truth of the statements, facilitates the construction of alternative realities and leads to a reinforcement of the methods of control of the messages. The medium is the message, said the famous thinker of ours, Marshall McLuhan… but this is no longer entirely true. The media for the messages have multiplied and lies or misinformation outweigh the truth three times out of four, it seems.
And Putin, like Hitler, plays the role of the attacked in order to become an attacker. Talking about denazification to a Jewish president whom he loathes because not only is he the successor of the Maidan revolution, but he was elected by more than 70% of the votes.
That’s almost the same result Putin got in 2018 with 77%. If democratically elected presidents start getting dictator scores, it becomes dangerous. We must put an end to this shameless turpitude…
Creating small independent states in the heart of Ukraine, even if it is staggering for the rest of the world, would be laughable if it were not further proof that the long-term tenant of the Kremlin is completely derailed, or rather that he legitimizes his action of “defense” on a surreality which rivals that of the eye gouged out by the architect of Ivan the Terrible.
So, my dear Vladimir, let’s talk about your ambitions: to recreate the Soviet Union. Your great friend Lavrov, whom I had the insignia – sorry, the unworthy – honor of meeting on occasion, told us that the “special military operation” was not aimed at civilians. We should go tell the 500 Ukrainians and more who have already lost their lives, to the nearly 1 million refugees who are fleeing the bombardments! Bravo also for the use of prohibited weapons! Perhaps Putin should read the American Civil War-era Lieber Code that is the origin of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, refined and expanded over the years, such as the prohibition of anti-personnel mines, Canadian glory, which Russia never signed – you have to keep a few toys in your arsenal, especially against civilians. Your Chinese friend looks at you with admiration because he thinks that Ukraine rhymes with Taiwan (he’s not a great poet, but that’s not one of the conditions for becoming a dictator!).
I still have news for you: you are an emulator of Hitler but we trust you to be tempted to surpass him. Unfortunately, you are already finished. In the short term, your oligarchs will decide to eliminate you and Ukraine will remain independent. If you stay in power and don’t turn your country into something more than a gas station, it will be the Chinese who will dominate Russia and be happy with unfettered access to your natural resources. If you don’t play their game, they will in turn be able to invade you… protecting the civilians, of course… Get out!