A President in T-Shirts

Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows the ways to captivate audiences. During this Russia-Ukraine, he is turning to the TV to champion Ukraine’s cause. Usually in a wartime situation like this, most leaders would show up in military fatigues. But Zelenskyy knows that will not sell well; instead, he dawns plain T-shirts, many a time collarless. He wants to be identified with his constituents at home and sympathizers abroad. Don’t forget, Zelenskyy’s former life was in entertainment business. He was a pretty successful comedian in Ukraine before he ran for presidency.

The war in Ukraine has brough tons of miseries to the people there. There is no necessary for this war to happen at all, had Zelenskyy understood geopolitics better. He was too consumed by his desire to join EU and NATO. The former objective is understandable, for membership in the union will help Ukraine economically. Aspiring to join the latter is outright stupidity. Why do you want to antagonize a neighbour? Unlike the other former Soviet Union states and satellites, Ukraine and Russia were equals; they were the two top dogs in the packing order of that empire.

There was much mismanagement since Ukraine became independent. Ultimately, it is the state of the nation’s economy that dictates who is good or bad in terms of national leadership. If you play politics, you get burned, especially if you resort to corruption to grease the wheel. In a post-Soviet setting, oligarchy became the norm. Ukraine is as bad as Russia in this respect.

Donald Trump was partial to Putin. As a businessman, he knows how to deal with Putin. Joe Biden hates Putin and Biden’s son is heavily invested in Ukraine. He therefore holds an evangelical attitude towards Ukraine vis-à-vis Russia. But he also doesn’t want American lives to be lost in Ukraine.

 

By egging Zelenskyy on, Biden kills many birds with one stone. The allies have to follow America’s every step in sanctioning Russia. America’s oil producers and farmers are now laughing all the way to the banks, so is its military-industrial complex, and Europe is becoming even more dependent on Uncle Sam. And Biden thinks that by being seen to be tough to Russia he will save his presidency. NATO is caught in an identity crisis. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States are the 12 founding members of NATO. Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey joined later. Not everyone in NATO is happy to upset the applecart. Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel was against it, so is France’s Emmanuel Macron. Several others are also not keen – Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, et al. Ukraine can only count on the Baltic countries, especially Lithuania, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and Poland to scream. NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is especially vocal in his support. He is the one who constantly echoes America’s exhortation that China is a threat to NATO. The Soviet-era Cold War was already over, why should they worry about Communism now? In fact, it is the Neo-Nazism that they should be concerned about. I want to quote two sentences from an article written by Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-large, in the Straits Times a day or two ago: (i) “The Russians, supported by China, have launched an effective propaganda campaign to convince the people of the world that Russia is not the aggressor and that the culprit is Nato.” and (ii) “The Russian and Chinese narrative blaming Nato for the war in Ukraine is not supported by the facts.” He contended that Russia actually signed a document in 1999 acknowledging Ukraine’s right to choose or change its security arrangements and said this was confirmed in the Istanbul Documents of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Wait a minute, did he say 1999? The president of Ukraine at that time was Leonid Kuchma, who did not have a bad relationship with Russia. Political ties are never static. Ukraine became an issue to Russia after it succumbed to Orange Revolution. Didn’t President Kennedy react immediately when the Soviet Union deployed ballistic missiles in Cuba in 1962 – when the US was doing the same thing in Italy and Turkey? I can but you can’t! What Zelenskyy should have done is to act like India’s Narendra Modi! Act in the best interest of your country! By becoming a neutral country like Finland, Sweden or Switzerland, you enjoy the best of both worlds. Russia and Ukraine can complement each other in many areas, especially in agriculture. And a good relationship with the rest of Europe will allow its people to enjoy “bourgeois sophistication”. It can even join European Union for all Russia cares. What will it get by wanting to be a member of NATO? Zelenskyy should seek wisdom from a good oriental guru. Biden is certainly not one.