Putin and the Death of One Man in Ukraine: Will Ukraine Need Czar Putin to Prevent Further Chaos?
Last Thursday, as the result of demonstrations in the Eastern Ukraine, a demonstrator was stabbed and later died of his wounds, the result of a confrontation between those who support Russia's intervention in Eastern Ukraine and those who want Ukraine to remains intact and independent of undue Russian influence.
One death in the midst of the current crisis may not seem like much (don't take this the wrong way), but if you know your history, the death of a particular young Nazi party member, Horst Wessel, at the hands of the Nazis political enemies. This single death became a lasting and effective rallying cry for the Nazi's ascent to power in the 1930s. It wasn't the only death to occur during those turbulent times in Germany, but due to and effective propaganda machine, captured the imaginations of those who saw the Nazis as somehow "saviors" of a Germany humiliated by their enemies after the defeat suffered in World War I. So effective was this propaganda effort that the "Horst Wessel Lied" became the official Nazi anthem, played over and over again as Hitler climbed the steps of power that ultimately resulted in him and his party ruling Germany with an iron fist. We all know what happened after that.
In this case, however, the demonstrator who died in the demonstration in Donetsk was one who supported an independent Ukraine. And immediately the regional government called for Putin to stop his provocations, which they believe were the real source of trouble in their part of Ukraine. But Putin thinks differently:
We'll have to wait and see if this steady encroachment on the independence of the Ukrainian state continues according to this plan. But one thing seems certain: Putin will continue to position himself as some kind of savior of a Ukraine that will be painted as descending into chaos - whether that characterization is true or untrue. The fact is, this modern Czar won't concern himself with the truth; rather, he will use every incident he can find as an opportunity to convince enough people that they need his iron will and strong hand to protect them from that chaos - real or imagined.
Comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis, while not perfect, nevertheless naturally do spring to mind, don't they?
One death in the midst of the current crisis may not seem like much (don't take this the wrong way), but if you know your history, the death of a particular young Nazi party member, Horst Wessel, at the hands of the Nazis political enemies. This single death became a lasting and effective rallying cry for the Nazi's ascent to power in the 1930s. It wasn't the only death to occur during those turbulent times in Germany, but due to and effective propaganda machine, captured the imaginations of those who saw the Nazis as somehow "saviors" of a Germany humiliated by their enemies after the defeat suffered in World War I. So effective was this propaganda effort that the "Horst Wessel Lied" became the official Nazi anthem, played over and over again as Hitler climbed the steps of power that ultimately resulted in him and his party ruling Germany with an iron fist. We all know what happened after that.
In this case, however, the demonstrator who died in the demonstration in Donetsk was one who supported an independent Ukraine. And immediately the regional government called for Putin to stop his provocations, which they believe were the real source of trouble in their part of Ukraine. But Putin thinks differently:
Russia warned that Ukraine’s government has lost control of the country, fueling concern the Kremlin may extend a military intervention..
“Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of its countrymen and citizens and reserves the right to defend people,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website today, a day after a demonstrator died in fighting between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters.Opposing this view are those who support a Ukraine free to sort out its current crisis without the Russian leader's assistance:
Russia may be provoking some of the clashes to justify extending a military incursion, said Oleksiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the Kyiv-Mohyla academy.Putin seems to think he is today's version of a Czar, one who rules a Russian Empire. The fact that Russia's empire no longer exists won't stop his thinking. In fact he wants to reconstitute that empire under his autocratic rule. Apparently Ukraine would play a critical role in that effort, starting with Russia's annexation of the Eastern part of the country, following the referendum in Crimea scheduled for Sunday which will allegedly allow the citizens of Crimea to decide to separate from Ukraine.
“Russia is destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine on purpose and is ready to use anything it can,” Haran said by phone today. “Provocations are resulting in people’s deaths, and then Russia uses it to begin wide-scale aggression against eastern Ukraine’s regions.”
We'll have to wait and see if this steady encroachment on the independence of the Ukrainian state continues according to this plan. But one thing seems certain: Putin will continue to position himself as some kind of savior of a Ukraine that will be painted as descending into chaos - whether that characterization is true or untrue. The fact is, this modern Czar won't concern himself with the truth; rather, he will use every incident he can find as an opportunity to convince enough people that they need his iron will and strong hand to protect them from that chaos - real or imagined.
Comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis, while not perfect, nevertheless naturally do spring to mind, don't they?
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