Russia Lacks a Counterpart to Senator McCain, Amelina Laments

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 25 – The nearly unanimous praise for Senator John McCain after he was diagnosed with brain cancer and the nearly unanimous condemnation of a lone article wishing him ill has prompted a leading Russian analyst to point out that her country lacks anyone like the American political leader. 

            Yana Amelina, the coordinator of the Caucasus Geopolitical Club, says that she is far from being a support of McCain’s views on Russia given that he “was and remains a consistent enemy of our country” but feels compelled to praise him for “the simple patriotism” he represents.  Russia has no counterpart (kavkazgeoclub.ru/content/gde-nash-makkeyn)

                Had McCain been elected president, she continues, “it is completely possible that we would not be among the living.” But what is impressive about him is “the universal respect even blessing which despite all the multiplicity of views which this politician elicits in America and the lack of such a figure in Russia.” 

            The source of the near universal respect and praise for McCain in America, Amelina says, is that he, in the words of US military analyst Ralph Peters, has always sought to be “a genuine patriot” and to serve the United States in his daily life (nypost.com/2017/07/20/the-everyday-patriotism-of-john-mccain).

                McCain took responsibility for his own life and did his job in an honest way, two things that he served as a model for and encouraged others to follow, the Russian analyst says. And importantly, she continues, the US senator insisted that “no one should ever permit politics to destroy a friendship.”

            “These simple principles are well known to everyone,” Amelina says. “The problem is that not all that many follow them. As a result, we have what we have both in the US and in Russia and in the entire world.”

            And she concludes by asking “Is such an individual to be found in the political spectrum of Russia? Certainly not Gryzlov or Mironov or Zhirinovsky or, God forbid, some Strelkovs or Navalnys.  Where is our McCain? Who is the politician who can be the role model for tens of millions of Russian patriots – hopefully without the extreme aspects of the American ‘model’

            “Who is this ‘Russian hero’? ‘To make a life with’? And although the young patriotic camp is working all this summer, there is as before no answer to this question.”  But perhaps the most important thing about Amelina’s comment is the person she doesn’t even seem to consider a possibility in this regard – Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.