On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a slight wound, which was simultaneously blistering and red speech. Quoting the fascist philosopher Ivan Iyin, Putin sees himself as a hero leading the global war against the West in general and US hegemony in particular. But rather than mark the beginning of a new epochal conflict, the speech instead pointed to the extent to which the Russian President has lost touch with reality.
The statement was intended to mark a high point in the “success” of the “special operation” against Ukraine, namely the attempt to annex the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – despite the forces Russia does not fully control any of those regions. . What Putin planned in February as a blitzkrieg was instead mocked as а bly * tkrieg, replacing the word blitz, the German word for lightning, with a Russian curse word that Translations are not published here.
While the horrors of the conflict were no laughing matter, that Putin was blind to the tragic reality of the fighting was made clear when Ukrainian forces regain the city of Lyman in Donetsk Oblast within 24 hours of having the diatribe. Lyman was once of strategic importance due to its position as a railway junction, but now it also takes on a symbolic meaning – all thanks to the fact that Putin can no longer keep his anger to himself. .
A week later, an explosion occurred at the Kerch Bridge that Putin ordered to build to connect the Russian mainland with the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. The bridge is said to be the project that the Kremlin used propagate its occupation regime than any other and the pro-Kremlin media before paint like impermeable attack.
Putin has long criticized America’s so-called “rules-based order” and hypocrisy about the use of force abroad. He first came up with these ideas in his 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference. Back then, he was still willing to call the United States and other Western nations “partners” – language he had explicitly set aside. His descent into hype continues with two essays, published in 2020 and 2021, re-imagining World War II blame the West for Hitler’s attacks on Eastern Europe while pardoning Russia for the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and denounce the Ukrainian nation.
How Putin came to be is also made clear by one particular highlight of his latest speech: his claim that Russia is leading the quest against hegemony. America and the rest of the world are choosing to side with it. But some of the countries he presumably considers allies – those that have refused to “bow” to US pressure and have made “a sensible choice to cooperate with Russia” – may not be keen on the deal. Kremlin.
Take Iran, which is currently facing a wave of anti-government protests. The hardliners currently in power in Tehran have not stopped engaging with the West. In fact, they are negotiating with the US and its Western allies for a deal to lift sanctions that former US President Donald Trump unilaterally – and thus hegemonic – re-imposed on the regime.
Meanwhile, China – another great power for which Putin has sought support – is also far itself from the Russian war effort. It is not interested in joining Putin’s effort to enhance the global, dollar-dominated international financial order, which suits Beijing well. It search eventually displace the US as the dominant player while Putin hopes to completely collapse the current system.
And although Chinese President Xi Jinping is also a fierce critic of US geopolitical power, Beijing is not only cautious in its approach to the conflict in Ukraine but also refuses to endorse Putin’s views. on the annexation of the territory of Ukraine. While the Kremlin often prefers to cite the US-China disagreement over Taiwan as its invasion of Ukraine, it is highly unlikely that Beijing will do the same, let alone recognize its sovereignty. Russia’s right to the “annexed” territories.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose own affairs with the West he blames for the 2016 coup plot against him, has so far refused to join Western sanctions against him. Russia. However, Turkish banks – some of which have been accused of evading Iran sanctions – have begun to think better of circumventing US sanctions on Russia.
The day before Putin’s speech, it was report that Turkish state banks are no longer willing to use the Russian MIR payment system, an alternative to the Belgium-based SWIFT interbank messaging system that most of the largest banks of Russia was banned.
Ankara has waste Putin’s annexations are also clearly a serious violation of international law. Meral Aksener, leader of Turkey’s opposition IYI party – currently voting Tuesday – has also ramped up his rhetoric against the Kremlin, lambasting Putin destabilized the broader region after his speech.
The situation is similar in India, which has been poised to increase imports of Russian oil and other commodities in recent months, but there are growing signs that Moscow’s demands that it cannot Support is dwindling. Oil companies and the Indian government are said to have been reluctant to adopt a ruble trade regime for oil imports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also delivered his most significant criticism of the war to date at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan on September 16. clarify that “the present day is not the age of war”.
Putin even stood at risk of loss what was once one of Russia’s closest security allies – Armenia – after the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) refused to support Yerevan after border conflict with Azerbaijan and attacks on its territory. Some high-ranking Armenian officials even refer leave the block completely.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has also sought to distance himself from Putin, despite Russian forces intervened in the country just this January to help quell a series of protests Labeling a coup attempt. Like some 200,000 Russians Tokayev escaped from Putin’s draft to Kazakhstan for the past two weeks Is called The crisis in Russia is a “hopeless situation”. Meanwhile, amid Russia’s efforts to attract workers from Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have warning their citizens against fighting in the conflict.
Even Tajikistan, where there is only president Awards Order for the Fatherland, third class, awarded by Putin himself discretion risk violating Western sanctions on Russia’s payment system.
Putin’s military atrocities and economic mismanagement have also failed to win him over his friends in Africa and the Middle East, where nations have so far largely ignored consider conflict. But there are signs that the horrors of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine are pushing this neutrality to its limits.
In the Middle East, two major energy exporters, Qatar and Kuwait, have condemn use force to settle disputes between states and have Is called out of respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In Africa, too, there have been criticisms of Russian aggression. At the end of September, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo told “Every bullet, every bomb, every bullet that hits its target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa.”
Despite his hopes, Putin fights alone. That could make him even more dangerous. But that will only isolate him further. His war in Ukraine was not a civilized or historical struggle for the future, but a man’s frenzied desires made manifest because he systematically eliminated and often brutalize the possibility for any voice in Russia to speak out against him. But his desire to threaten the world to submit to barbarism and his frenzied worldview is just a pipe dream. And in that is hope.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of Al Jazeera.
