Putin's crocodile tears
Just when you think you’ve heard the height of “do as I say, not as I do” escaping from the mouths of world leaders (and we can find no end of examples right in our own back yard), Vladimir Putin’s abject hypocrisy regarding the situation in Gaza sets a new standard. To wit:
“…[it is] wrong that innocent women, children, and old people in the Palestinian enclave are being punished for other people’s crimes,” said Vladimir Putin. “The fight against terrorism cannot be conducted according to the notorious principle of collective responsibility when old people, women, children, entire families and hundreds of thousands of people are left without shelter, food, water, electricity and medical care.”
He added that Moscow continued to advocate for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli issue, something he said was the only way to reach a long-term settlement. (Israel’s war in Gaza could spread beyond Middle East: Russia’s Putin – Al Jazeera, 2023-10-26)
Who is Putin's real audience?
On the face of it, it is difficult to conceive of how anyone could read Vladimir Putin’s words and give them any credence at all, based on what the Russians have been doing in Ukraine since they began their full-scale invasion there in February 2022. Even as I write this on November 3, the headline on Al Jazeera’s news site screams “Russian drones, missiles and shells target Ukrainian infrastructure”, and such news is a daily occurrence.
One truly wonders whether the Russians actually believe some of the nonsense that they espouse or whether they say exactly what they think will play to whatever audience they are trying to charm at any given moment, that being either their largely duped domestic audience or a particular audience beyond the borders of the so-called Russian Federation. We will, of course, never know what any one of them, including Putin, truly believe but it’s pretty safe to assume that they have no trouble saying things that make us scream “How the hell can he actually say that with a straight face?” because there are unfortunately Russian-targeted audiences in the world all-too-willing to lap that up.
Putin and Hamas
In the case of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, there is no specific proof that Russia encouraged or otherwise paved the way for Hamas to launch its deadly attack on Israel, but there is no denying that Russia benefits a great deal if the attack draws away the world’s attention from what it is doing in Ukraine. Moreover, Russia is (for better or for worse), and wants to be seen as, a power broker in the Middle East and therefore finds it very easy to pretend that it is the great anti-coloniser (while at the same time being one of the most egregious colonial powers in the world), standing arm-in-arm with the poor beleaguered victims of those big, bad colonial powers, namely Israel and the United States. This is where Putin’s abject hypocrisy really shines.
Moscow has not condemned Hamas’s action of October 7, instead preferring to conflate what is clearly a terrorist act with the broader and clearly more defensible issue of Palestinian rights and statehood. It is interesting to note that, while the US, the UK, and the EU have all officially designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, Russia has not.
An especially skilled moral gymnast
Thus, Russia’s positioning and pronouncements on the war between Hamas and Israel (which have now even gone so far as Russia stating that Israel does not have a legitimate right to defend itself) takes the tone that Vladimir Putin’s statements quoted in the beginning of this article convey. Despite the fact that no one looking at his words objectively could ever miss Putin’s abject hypocrisy dripping from them based on what Russia is doing in Ukraine, many countries believe it is their interest to nod their heads in agreement.
It takes an especially skilled moral gymnast, and a deeply cynical one, no less, to cry crocodile tears for innocent civilians in Gaza while simultaneously carrying out the very same horrors right on his own doorstep, but Putin knows that it works. It’s a shame that only the West is willing to call out Putin’s bullshit – if more of the Global South were willing to take off its (often justified, unfortunately) anti-American blinders for just a moment and perhaps crack an East European history book not written by Russians or Russian/Soviet apologists, Putin might not feel quite as free to speak out of both sides of his mouth.
Of course, we wouldn’t expect any different from a man whose country counts among its new best friends the likes of North Korea, Iran, and Chin
Putin's abject hypocrisy: The bottom line
Putin unquestionably knows he’s full of it, the West knows he’s full of it, and one has to think (or at least hope) that even the Global South knows he’s full of it, even while the latter countries play nice with Russia for their own reasons. Worse yet, Putin knows they know that he’s full of it but, as ever, realpolitik trumps all, and Putin will continue to pretend he cares about the lives of “innocent women, children, and old people [being] left without shelter, food, water, electricity and medical care”, as long as they’re not Ukrainian, of course, because Ukrainians who don’t support Russia deserve to die.
Oh, and that “two-state solution”? That’s exactly what Ukraine has been fighting Russia for all along. Good idea, that.
More on the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
What has Russia accomplished? (Part 2)
What good has come from the full-scale invasion? (Part 5)
(Note: Part 5 will be published first elsewhere, so the link is inoperative at this time.)
What I don’t understand is why are the leaders of Palestine not offering to work with Israel and drive out Hamas! Yes I know the two are mortal enemies. I just don’t get how they are all totally discrediting the Oct 7 actions. Instead it appears they are all terrorists
I think that’s a very valid observation, Lana, and so many in the world are too quick to equate Hamas’s aims with the very real and valid goals of the Palestinian people as a whole.