Mark Porter, Cannes
There will be heavy reprisals if President Putin of Russia decides to invade Ukraine, warned US President Joe Biden on Friday. Action will be taken “decisively” if Russian shove comes to putsch.
Putin is a shrewd gambler and believes the West hasn’t the guts to stand up to him and his 100,000 troops thronged on the Ukrainian border. He seems to be following precisely Hitler’s playbook. Any “compromises” – aka appeasement – at this stage by the West would be a disastrous mistake.
In 1898 the Skibbereen Eagle, a local paper in Ireland’s West Cork, ran its famous editorial: “We will still keep our eye on the Emperor of Russia and on all such despotic enemies, whether at home or abroad, of human progression and man’s natural rights.” The Skibbereen Eagle may no longer be with us, but Russia is. And the eyes of the world are once again firmly fixed upon it.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/31/biden-ukraine-call/
https://www.ft.com/content/328084fe-f95f-4283-b35a-f07448c5c69f