OPINION:
Russian President Vladimir Putin is an apex predator. He is a pupil of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s tactics, if not a pupil of Stalin’s full ideology. As Stalin assassinated his rivals, most notably Leon Trotsky in 1940, so has Putin done with some of his opponents. As Stalin brought the show trial to Moscow, Putin has followed suit.
Channeling his 15th-century namesake, Putin has impaled Ukrainian democracy in a mendacious effort to bring an independent nation to its knees by force of arms. Western weakness in the preamble to the full-scale invasion begot this bloody assault, and we can only hope that a dormant NATO, now impelled to nonkinetic action, will force Putin to desist.
It is unlikely the Russian people will rise against their government in a people’s revolution, however restive they may be at Putin’s mindless viciousness. Nor is it likely that enlightened members of the Russian military, appalled by Putin’s implied nuclear threat, will overthrow the tyrant. So a newly awakened NATO is the only game on the European stage and the alliance must play a robust role — however expensive the ticket to the gala.
PAUL BLOUSTEIN
Cincinnati
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