Let’s Take Putin to the Woodshed

No more Mister Nice Guy. The bully needs to be taught a lesson. The coterie of supporters of taking Vladimir Putin to the woodshed is growing.

Until very recently only those individuals and governments that experienced the pain, suffering and repression of Russian subjugation have called for extreme reprisals against Moscow for its unrelenting crimes against humanity. They argued that sanctions have been insufficient because Putin is still heading a regime that is perpetrating a wide range of crimes against his people and nations near and far.

Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Antanas Linkevičius comes to mind as such an outspoken advocate of using collective force against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine and other violations of international law and order.

And they’re right. After all, the free world united to defeat Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

This fraternity has now grown with the addition of Benjamin J. Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor for strategic communications and speechwriting under President Barack Obama.

In an MSNBC broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show on April 23, Rhodes said its time to make the Russian führer think twice about, for instance, invading Ukraine again, by pushing back hard.

In setting up her discussion with Rhodes, Rachel Maddow, who also seems to understand the severity of Putin’s transgressions, used the Kremlin’s ultimate countermanding of the massive mobilization of Russian troops on Ukraine’ border as an example of the efficacy of pushing back against him.

In other words, he blinked first.

“President Putin is also apparently backing down this week on the international stage. Over the past few weeks, he’s amassed over hundred thousand troops along the Russian border with Ukraine, more than any time since he invaded Ukraine back in 2014 and took part of Ukraine for himself,” Maddow said, according to a transcript of the program. She recalled the “bluster” of his national speech, in which he warned the free world about crossing Russia’s red line.

“But, today, nevertheless, Russia announced its pulling back its forces from Ukraine’s border. Turning around and heading home after international consternation and pressure and rejection of that military menace. We just kind of (sic) how bullying works, right? I mean, you get this just pounding and threatening noise from a guy like Putin, but you push back, he backs down. Never mistake bluster for strength. It’s a good reminder in life. It’s a good reminder in these things, too,” she opined.

Rhodes, replying, said that in order to pursue his mission and to stay above the law – domestic and international – Putin seeks apathy. “He wants his own people to think it’s not worth standing up to corruption because that’s the way things are. It’s not worth standing up against what we are trying to do in Ukraine because inevitably I’m just going to wait you out,” he observed. Putin’s patience is visible in his prolonging of the so-called constitutional term of his presidency now expected to end in 2036.

Apathy makes sense. The more people look the other way, the more he’ll get away with committing crimes.

Rhodes suggested that the international community, not only Russians, must continuously monitor what Putin’s Moscow does. It must pay attention to Putin’s mercurial and unpredictable behavior and his obnoxious disregard for global opinion. “He leaves this episode communicating that if I want to kill Alexei Navalny, I can. He’s in my custody. If I want to move those troops in Ukraine, I can,” he said.

Consequently, the free world must constantly warn Putin, aptly characterized as a killer by President Biden, of the price for his criminal behavior. “I think that means it’s incumbent on everybody to make clear to him what the cost will be. And I think it’s not out of Russia. From the US, it should be, look, if Alexei Navalny, if you try to silence this man, there are not only people rise up in Russia, but around the world to expose Vladimir Putin’s corruption, to spotlight the corruption of Vladimir Putin and the oligarch network that supports him. To make Putin again think twice about, is this a time I might push too far and invite a backlash that fundamentally threatens the stability of this country?”

Pushing back against the Russian dictator’s intimidation, terrorization, aggression, etc., is “ultimately the only thing that is going to get someone like Putin’s attention,” Rhodes accurately stated.

Keep Putin’s legacy in mind when you’re faced with greeting him or his cohort.