VLADIMIR Putin has shown himself to be what the British public seemingly knew better than many of its politicians and diplomats.
Russia’s president is a sociopathic ultra-nationalist who cares nothing for the value of human life.
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Just ask the people of Salisbury for example if they thought it was a good idea to welcome Putin’s mega-wealthy cronies into the UK.
Or to undertake trade missions to Moscow as recently as last year.
Or for Alex Salmond to host a regular programme on Russia’s RT propaganda news channel as recently as last week.
Salisbury’s residents, having lived through a fatal – near catastrophic – Putin-ordered chemical weapons attack in their town four years ago, would have known that appealing to the Russian president’s better nature wasn’t going to work.
He doesn’t have one.
Jeremy Corbyn famously suggested Russia should be a part of that Salisbury-Novichok investigation.
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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace pretty much destroyed him in the Commons last week.
It’s not just yesterday’s politicians who have been blind, deaf and dumb.
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Prime-minister Boris Johnson talks a good game on Russia – and in some respects he has acted well in recent weeks with the UK’s military and rhetorical support for Ukraine.
But the Tory party has been unable to wean itself off funding from Russians with shady connections. Lord Lebedev, son of a KGB agent and owner of the London Evening Standard and the Independent, was enobled by Mr Johnson in 2020.
Past mistakes and political blindness – or incompetence – aside, we are where we are.
Ukraine is being raped.
The far left and far right aside, most people understand that the blame lies with the Kremlin and its puppet-master.
More than that, they instinctively understand that this time – unlike so many previous times – Putin needs to be tackled and beaten.
Not just ignored.
Russia has rarely suffered defeats in the 22 years so far of Putin’s presidency.
It won in Chechnya in 2000 ,through horrific slaughter, then again in Georgia in 2008 and then again in Ukraine in 2014 with yet more slaughter, and a slap on the wrist this time, then in Syria, where there was massive slaughter but no censure.
Putin is a gambler. Gamblers who win, throw the dice again. Gamblers who lose, give up, go bankrupt, or are destroyed.
Through all this we let Russia host Olympic Games, World Cups, Grand Prix and plenty more.
Russia should not begiven the privilege and prestige of hosting international sporting tournaments.
So far, it has only been kicked out of Eurovision song contest.
The right move to be sure, but hardly one that will have Putin scurrying back into his hole.
And the British public can help here by pressuring their elected representatives to get together to do something about it.
Failure to finally beat Putin at his own imperial game will mean more slaughter, a re-drawing of the map of Europe, almost certainly more assassinations down the line, and basically ‘more Putin’.
But I can assure you there is ‘another Russia’ out there.
One which doesn’t deserve to be led by a dictator with an inferiority complex.
This Russia’s citizens, with a little encouragement and assistance, can one day re-join the European family of peace-loving, democratic nations.
We’re a long way from that right now.
But that other Russia is out there somewhere, and we can all help to make it happen by defeating its leader this time around.
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