Putin’s Efforts to Save Himself by Promoting Chaos are Doomed, Yakovenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 26 – Many countries lag behind the leaders but nonetheless are able to catch up and even surpass them by acknowledging where they are and by playing by the rules, Aleksandr Yakovenko says. But Vladimir Putin refuses to acknowledge Russia’s backwardness and weakness, and he refuses to play by the rules.

           

            Instead, the Kremlin leader insists that Russia has nothing to learn from others but instead is “a teacher” for them and refuses to play by the rules, the Russia commentator says. And that combination, one based on saving himself by spreading chaos, is doomed to fail and perhaps in an unexpectedly rapid fashion (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A41F23136474).

            China and Singapore show what countries can achieve when they admit they are behind and have much to learn from others and play by the rules.  But “Putin’s Russia conducts itself in a principally different way, pretending to be a counterweight to the West and in fact to the role of a world leader.”

            “Not having the resources for this and also lacking any chance to achieve what it wants in an honest way, Putin” first violates the rules of the game and then begins to threaten that he will do even more unless others change the rules so that he and his country can assume the roles he thinks are rightfully theirs.

            Why this will work only so long can be seen in what has happened in the world of international sports, where Putin organized a state system of doping in order to win medals and make claims and where once this was exposed Russia is now having to try to find a way back into competitions that are governed by rules that expressly prohibit what he has done.

            “For long years,” Yakovenko continues, “Putin’s Russia has spread chaos through world sports, buying up international sports officials retail and sports federations wholesale and by setting up an unprecedented state system of doping.”  It achieved Putin’s goals for a time, but now that effort has collapsed and the sports world is almost completely united against him.

             Considering the diversity and complexity of the present-day world,” he says, “playing on the contradictions between the players, Putin still for a certain time may be able to support his regime by increasing chaos in the world.” But as what has happened in the sports world shows, he won’t be able to keep it up forever.

            And because that is so, Yakovenko concludes, “the Putin stability which is based on the generation of chaos can end suddenly and much earlier than the end of the next presidential term,” something those who think that they are avoiding by voting for the Kremlin incumbent who promises stability above everything else should reflect upon.