“25 years of Putin”

Twenty-five years ago, Russia’s first democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin, formally handed over power to his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin.  Yeltsin’s final words to Putin were, “Take care of Russia.”

Putin was selected by a coterie of oligarchs who thought he would protect their interests. Today, those oligarchs are long gone, some murdered, jailed, deprived of their assets or in exile.  But Putin remains and Yeltsin’s democratic Russia had been massacred.

Today’s Russia is isolated from the West, crippled by sanctions and high inflation, cut off from international flights and banking systems, engaged in a bloody, senseless war with Ukraine and under constant Ukrainian drone attack.

Since 2022, Russia has only captured 20% of Ukraine at a horrendous cost in lives and may have to give some of this up.  Russia's military casualties, according to US officials, are approaching 300,000. This includes approximately 120,000 killed and 180,000 injured since February 2022.

But Putin claims he hasn’t “just taken care of Russia” as directed by Yeltsin but has pulled Russia back from the edge of the abyss by reclaiming its sovereignty and might. He portrays Yeltsin's Russia as a country that had been losing its sovereignty. He accuses the West of having "patronisingly patted" Yeltsin on the shoulder while "using Russia for its own purposes".

Putin’s Russia is all too familiar to the Soviet Union — and never more so than on the 9 May Victory Parade which featured tanks and rockets, goose-stepping troops marching on Moscow’s Red Square, buildings draped in red banners featuring “Hero of the Soviet Union” medals and great Soviet generals, and attended by China, North Korea, Vietnam and Kazakhstan. It was a display of unity among Communist autocratic regimes in defiance of the democratic Western world and its values.

Putin clearly wants to “Make Russia Great Again”.  He feels he has a lot in common with Trump and Xi and wants the United States, China and Russia to rule the world, calling the new alliance, “The Power of Three”.   He is personally not interested in Zelinsky whatsoever.