Ian O’Hara’s opinion column, “Letters From Your Neighbor” offers Ian’s thoughts on Gulfport politics, local happenings, and broader issues. Eagle Finegan
Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, launched an unjust, unprovoked, and illegal war against neighboring Ukraine. The Russian ruble is now worthless externally. President Volodymyr Zelensky took the NATO offer off the table which means under previous statements of Vladimir Putin, this illegal war of aggression should stop. So, my next question would be, is Putin a rational actor? 15,000 arrested in Moscow alone for demonstrations. Is this a Russian populus war, or is this Putin’s war?
Lind Thomas Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the UN, stated that “81 UN nations condemned Russia’s actions against Ukraine.”
Under Vladimir Putin’s letters last year, he made these conditions: “Unite the Slavic people. Close the door to NATO action on my borders. Rewrite the post-WWII script. Unify the patriarchy under one Russian Orthodoxy.”
In my previous column I stated, “America’s number one concern is to avoid a hot war with a Nuclear adversary.” I still believe this to be true. This could be a reset to America politics.
Putin’s Russian military strategy is called strategic ambiguity. He makes many statements that he could use cyberattack, nuclear attack, misinformation, or disinformation as his war against the West.
An example of disinformation is Putin’s statement, “40% of the population of Ukraine is ethnically Russian, most living in two regions, and they need to be liberated.” Another example of misinformation: This is his “de-Nazification of Ukraine.”
So, if these statements are true, the expectation is that all three are on the table for President Vladimir Putin. Bank accounts have been frozen, credit accounts, credit cards, and credit loans and actions are all frozen; Russia’s national credit rate is junk or near junk.
In my previous column, I asked the question, “Defend democracy? What democracy?” Well, after learning quite a bit about Ukraine, I realized I was incorrect. It is a real democracy. Ukraine has its own language, its own literature, multiple national movements throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and has had free elections since 2014, and the clear demarcation of Stalin’s ethnic cleansing process.
SWIFT, the UN unit by which banks communicate to banks, has stopped supporting Russian banks.
Can Putin Survive the economic assault? Could there be a Julius Caeser effect?
“The Greater the power the more dangerous the abuse”- Edmond Burke
Sincerely,
Your neighbor,
