The propaganda machine called the western mainstream media has done all it can to put a dark spin on the brilliance of President Vladimir Putin, going so far as to cook up unlikely stories to demonise him. Meanwhile, he has marched on from victory to victory. The best thing about his leadership is that each time he wins for his motherland, he wins for humankind too. Let’s start with the brightest feather in his cap: Syria.
In less than six months, the proxy terrorists of the empire who were closing in on Damascus are on the run, their oil trade and arms supplies conclusively disrupted. Decisive Russian victories on the battlefield and in the realm of diplomacy have pushed questions about Syria’s political transition to the negotiating table where they belonged in the first place. Those chanting Assad-must-go have been muzzled and talks in Geneva are not premised upon sending Assad anywhere.
Moscow’s position that the Western powers and their regional allies have no right to interfere in Syria, through Assad-must-go demands or by sponsoring different brands of proxy terrorists, and that the future of Syria should be decided by the Syrian people, has been vindicated. The crooked western narrative on Syria lies in tatters. The humanitarian interventions of the ‘civilised’ world stand comprehensively exposed.
Putin could be credited for nudging the US away from total madness; from playing proxy terrorists as regime-change chess pieces in Syria to jointly overseeing a ceasefire and relief efforts in the country. The UN-designated terrorist groups are not covered by the ceasefire so they continue to be targeted, villages and towns being liberated from their barbaric hold by advancing Syrian government troops and their partners.
In less than six months, Russia has announced withdrawal of troops from Syria, though it would continue to operate from an air-base and a naval base to provide support to the Syrian army and its allies. There is talk about rebuilding the Syrian cities and return of internally displaced Syrians.
Importantly, Russia’s military support was requested by the Syrian government and is in accordance with international law. President Putin’s remarks at the 70th UN General Assembly just before Russia went into Syria clearly showed that he was not willing to put up with the illegal regime change nightmares of the US cabal anymore.
Other than helping an ally, Putin went in with the clear aim of breaking the back of terrorists before they got any stronger, stopping them before they crept any closer to Russia and stopping the Russians among them from returning to Russia by killing them in Syria. While we might have to wait for peace to return in Syria, these goals are as good as accomplished.
The Russian intervention was legal, purposeful, powerful and extremely effective. It showed the strength of Russian military and also exposed the US-led anti-ISIS coalition for the two-faced farce that it actually was. The US-led coalition had for years guided the expansion of terrorism in Syria instead of curbing it, bombing civilians and civic infrastructure in Syrian cities in its illegal bombing campaigns over Syrian sovereign territory.
By taking on the many tentacles of the terrorist infrastructure in Syria, President Putin also exposed those behind the proxy terrorists.
Turkey was caught trading oil for ISIS and supplying it with arms. Saudi Arabia and Qatar were found sponsoring the worst of the lot. The myth of moderate rebels was broken; they were found manning the ranks of ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates, along with all the weaponry, gadgetry and funds that the US had supplied them with a little help from its European friends. It became obvious that this was the way it was meant to be.
Syria is not just one country saved from the blood-thirsty claws of the empire. It marks a turning point in contemporary international relations. By going all out in Syria, Putin’s Russia has restored some balance and sanity to the international order that was crumbling under the unilateralist badmashi of the US cabal and its hybrid wars for destabilisation and regime change. Space has been created for a new pole, if not a new world, to emerge.
And that’s just one feather. Putin’s leadership of the world goes beyond the tables he’s turned in Syria before his enemies and detractors could count them, and what that means for the emerging world order. Though that alone amounts to a historic victory for a great world leader, in President Putin’s case, that is not all. He is leading the world in many other ways that are equally significant, if not more.
The multi-dimensional alliance that President Putin has forged with China counters various facets of the unbridled badmashi of the US cabal; its overt and covert illegal military interventions and equally illegal economic sanctions, its worthless dollar and the devious architecture of international finance and debt built around it, its divide-and-rule diplomacy and its poisoned blankets of loans and grants.
After kicking USAID out of Russia, the Russian parliament made laws to tighten the noose around foreign-sponsored NGOs with their fraudulent democracy and human rights agenda. The National Endowment for Democracy was among the first ones to be barred from working in Russia. This week, the National Democratic Institute was blacklisted as well. The wonderful thing about President Putin is that he is going further and challenging the entire paradigm of development marketed by liberal fascists, complete with its fragmented notions about human rights and promotion of pseudo-science.
All GMOs have been banned in Russia, for cultivation or import, and so are food products with GMO ingredients. Land is being given to farmers for organic agriculture with the vision to make Russia the leading exporter of non-GMO foods grown in an ecologically sustainable manner. The Russian Health Ministry is preparing a report to expose the pseudo-science and corruption behind the pharmaceutical industry and vaccines.
There is more to imperialism than control over territories and resources. The US-led empire seeks to monopolise the vision of human development and make it subservient to the interests of greedy unethical corporations. President Putin is challenging it on both counts and that’s what makes him so wonderful.