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Putin's Transformation: From Pledge of Stability to Nuclear Threat

2022-10-09 09:24:10Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Putin's Transformation: From Pledge of Stability to Nuclear Threat
Vladimir Putin

For decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented himself as the guarantor of stability in his country. But on his 70th birthday, he finds himself at the center of the storm, amid military losses in Ukraine, mass desertions following his mobilization order and clashes in the country's military high command. We take a look at the Russian president's journey from a pledge of stability to a nuclear threat.

Vladimir Putin assumed leadership of the country in 2000, replacing his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who resigned on December 31, 1999.

The Russian president has described former President Yeltsin's rule as a time of discord and decline, when millions of Russians were plunged into poverty while national wealth was looted by Kremlin-linked tycoons and the West.

Stanislav Belkovsky is an experienced political consultant and knows the Kremlin regime intimately.

"He was the figure who responded to the popular sense of historical redemption that prevailed in the late 1990s - because of the humiliation associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the colossal socio-economic problems of the late 1990s," he says.

Russians, weary of a decade of post-Soviet political and economic turmoil, enthusiastically embraced the president's promises to restore Russia's greatness.

"First we must admit that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. And it was a real drama for the Russian people," Russian President Putin said at the time.

Russian citizens remained largely indifferent to his moves to curtail political freedoms in the post-Soviet era amid oil-fueled economic prosperity.

But the situation changed after the global financial crisis of 2008, which led to a slowdown in economic growth and shrinking incomes.

However, the situation of Russian citizens continued to be much better, compared to the economic decline of the 1990s.

Early in his term, President Putin sought to cultivate closer ties with the West and even considered the possibility of Russia joining the NATO military alliance.

But then he changed the course of his policy, defying the US and its allies.

A key moment was regaining the presidency in 2012, after a four-year stint as prime minister, due to term limits.

His handpicked president, Dmitry Medvedev, resigned to his boss after one term, sparking mass protests against Mr Putin's return to the presidency.

President Putin accused the US of fueling the protests in Moscow and responded by toughening the crackdown on dissent at home and embracing a more aggressive course abroad.

Journalist Mikhail Zygar has had constant contact with the Kremlin elite and has published a book about President Putin and his circle.

"The winter of 2011-2012, Bolotnaya Square, all those mass gatherings - it was the last moment of a good life and it dashed the hope that a terrible and dark end could be avoided. In my opinion, everything that has happened since 2012 is a continuous decline", he says.

In 2014, President Putin made the decision to annex the Crimean Peninsula. He also supported the pro-Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow's intervention in Ukraine has pushed relations with the West to post-Cold War lows, and repeated attempts to negotiate a political settlement to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine have failed.

Tensions rose in the fall of 2021, when President Putin issued an ultimatum to the West, asking it to formally reject Ukraine's bid to join NATO and withdraw alliance forces from Eastern Europe.

When the West rejected his demands, the Russian president launched what he called a "special military operation" on February 24.

Russian citizens have different opinions about the war.

"First, he is our president, we (Russians) believe in him. 70 years old is not such a big age to be discouraged," says Moscow resident Vladimir Mironov.

"The situation in Ukraine is known to everyone, I think. The consequences of this situation, such as mobilization, do not have a positive effect, unfortunately," says Anastasia.

Asked what she would wish President Putin, she says she would wish him "good mental health."

The Russian president's hopes for a quick victory were dashed in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance and billions of dollars in military support for Ukraine from Western allies.

He has repeatedly signaled that he may use nuclear weapons, a warning that stands in stark contrast to his promise to restore stability that he has repeated over and over during his 22-year rule.

Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation, calls the nuclear threats a reflection of the Russian president's growing desperation.

"This is the last step for him, in a sense it is suicide. He is ready for this step, which means that we are seeing a dictator who I would say is even worse than (Josip) Stalin", he says.

The US and its allies have said they are taking Putin's threats seriously but will not give in to what they call blackmail to force the West to abandon Ukraine.

And Ukraine has vowed to continue its counterattack despite Russian rhetoric./VOA

 


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