Opinion

Should Putin be tried for war crimes for invading Ukraine and hanged till death in 2022?

Europe is at war. Russia has invaded Ukraine, and the war has entered the 20th day. The dance of death and destruction that has been on display before the world is unprecedented in recent history.

Thousands of Russian soldiers have died and so have Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainians, in an attempt to escape from the shelling taking place, are fleeing their homes resulting in a refugee crisis in Europe not seen after World War II.

The man waging and responsible for this war is Russian President Vladimir Putin. This has forced the world to understand the man behind this madness, Vladimir Putin. Is he mentally stable?

The war has not spread to the rest of the world, but the likelihood of it engulfing the whole world in its flames, leading to a third world war, is very real. In an attempt to curb Putin’s soaring dictatorial tendencies, the European Union has slapped crippling economic sanctions against Russia throwing its economy into recession.

Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has come out as a villainous character, even referred to by many as a 21st-century Hitler.

He kept the world guessing on whether he will invade Ukraine or not. One fine morning he decided to end the suspense and asked his army to roll into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. He also dared the world to stop him while warning that if the world tried to interfere, there would be consequences unheard of before.

It has been 20 days now since the invasion, and a truce is nowhere in sight despite Russia and Ukraine engaging in talks to defuse the situation.

It has been conveyed to Putin that Ukraine will be made a member of NATO, yet Russian artillery has been relentlessly firing on Ukrainian cities. This has forced Ukrainians to flee their cities.

An estimated 2 million Ukrainians have fled their homes and have sought shelter in neighboring countries of Poland, Slovakia and Romania. This has created an unprecedented refugee problem in Europe.

Geopolitical analysts interpret this as Putin’s obsession to restore Russia to its past glory by unifying his motherland.

Putin wants to bring all those areas which have either ethnic, linguistic or historical connection with the erstwhile Soviet Union under one umbrella. The invasion of Ukraine is the first step in that direction.

It is possible that other breakaway republics of the former Soviet Union, like Moldova, may be his next target. In 2008, Russia, under the Presidentship of Putin, invaded Georgia.

In 2014, Putin annexed Crimea, and in 2022, he has invaded Ukraine with the intention to oust the present political dispensation headed by President Zelensky and put his own man, Viktor Yanukovych, in power. To achieve this goal, he has launched a multi-front attack on Ukraine.

What drives Vladimir Putin to relentlessly pursue power and unleash vengeance at such a scale on unarmed civilians? This lunatic audacity and authoritarianism bordering on recklessness warrants a clinical analysis of Putin’s mental state. This diabolical thought process needs to be diagnosed and treated.

If this persists, it spells doom for the whole world. Putin’s grandfather worked as a cook for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. This did not have much bearing on Putin’s character. Putin picked up his dictatorial traits from his former boss, Anatoly Sobchak, who was the mayor of St. Petersburg and Putin was the deputy mayor. Putin admired him and, through a process of psychological osmosis, subconsciously picked up his trait of dictating over others.

Before that, Putin was a KGB agent. Putin was training with the KGB (the Soviet spy agency) in 1975 when his trainers discovered to their dismay, that Putin had a diminished sense of danger. What this meant was that Putin would ignore carelessly something that would appear very dangerous to an average person.

The spy agency considered this a very serious flaw. This trait of Putin is talked about at length in his biography. Putin has proved them right by invading Ukraine. Nobody else would have so carelessly sent tanks and artillery and armored carriers into a sovereign neighboring country completely unafraid of repercussions. He has been exhibiting this trait since his childhood.

Putin was born in October 1952 in the Soviet city of Leningrad. His parents belonged to the working class, and they lived in a Soviet-style apartment, sharing the limited space with two other families.

His choices as a child were markedly different from his peers. While most children his age preferred to play sports, Putin chose to pursue martial arts called Sambo. While most children his age dreamt of becoming a doctor or a pilot or something glamourous, Putin wanted to become a spy.

After graduating from Leningrad State University in 1975, he straightaway joined the KGB. After that, he was posted in East Germany, where he mastered smokes and mirrors.

Vladimir Putin has been trying to create the image of a James Bond for himself, someone who chases death casually and is not afraid of dying. He wants to create the impression among Russians that he is a daredevil and is not afraid of death. He has been bragging about it.

In an attempt to achieve this, he has orchestrated many stunts before Russians. Putin once dived deep into the Black Sea and came up with two ancient Greek urns. Putin said he fetched the relics from the floor of the Black Sea.

It was later revealed that the show was staged. There are images of Putin fishing, arm wrestling, posing bare-chested, riding a horse, driving a Harley Davidson, showing off his butterfly skills in water, co-piloting a jet, attaching a satellite transmitter to a tiger, and hunting.

All this to spruce up his image as a tough and multi-talented man who can do a lot of things. Putin likes to control the narrative as he is trying to do with Ukraine but seems to be failing.

Putin’s political career has followed a steep trajectory taking him to the pinnacle of political power. In 1991, Putin became the Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg. The next big leap came in 1997 when he became the deputy chief of the Presidential Staff.

A year later, in 1998, he became the head of the FSB, the successor spy agency of KGB. In 1999, Putin became one of the first Deputy Prime Minister of Russia followed very soon being appointed as the Prime Minister.

The ultimate coronation came in 2000 when he took the oath of office as the President of Russia. During this time, Russia’s image as a superpower had taken a severe beating. Boris Yeltsin was corrupt, alcoholic and a laughing stock for the world. Moreover, he was perceived to be a stooge of the West. Putin wanted to change all of this and restore Russia to its past glory.

Putin, a former KGB spy, never trusted the West, and this distrust got reinforced every time NATO inched closer to the Russian border by incorporating another country as its member. This was quite contrary to what NATO had promised to Mikhail Gorbachov that there would not be anymore expansion of NATO.

Keeping this in mind, Russia had dissolved the Warsaw Pact. Putin felt betrayed and backstabbed. He apprehended that NATO would continue its eastward expansion and ultimately surround Russia its border, thereby creating a strategic and security threat.

Putin dreamt of a Russia that would be independent, influential and feared. Chechnya provided him with the opportunity to build that dream state. The region had broken away from Russia and Chechen rebels had become a nuisance for Russia. Russia was rocked by a series of bomb blasts killing more than 300 people in 1999. Putin was then the Prime Minister.

He reacted strongly calling Chechen rebels mad dogs and vowed to avenge the blasts. Following this, his rating as an administrator soared to 45%. Many believe that the bombs were planted by KGB agents to soar up his reputation as a Russian strongman.

Putin went to war with Chechnya and incorporated it back into Russia. Approximately, 80,000 people got killed in that war. Following this victory, Yeltsin made him the President of Russia on December 31, 1999.

Even Putin’s own wife did not know that he was about to be appointed as President. Putin is that secretive. Nobody can know what is going on in his mind. Russian parliament had no clue about his plans of invading Ukraine.

He did seek their permission to send troops to foreign land, but the lawmakers did not expect that Putin would actually send the army to Ukraine.

The entire invasion of Ukraine is premised on Putin’s understanding that Russia and Ukraine are one, and that he is re-uniting Ukraine back with its motherland. He would not let anything come between him and his motherland.

This thought process has resulted in all the death and devastation and carnage in Ukraine. The current war in Ukraine needs to be interpreted through Putin’s mind that has been shaped by tough circumstances. He is a boy from a working-class family who climbed his way to Kremlin and became the face of Moscow.

He has the backing of powerful KGB officers. He has the rich and powerful of Russia on his side. He has been in power for 22 years now.

He has dragged Russia into many wars. He has meddled in the affairs of his neighbors, be it Belarus or Azerbaijan. He has locked up oligarchs who did not align with him and silenced critics who challenged him.

Putin has sanctioned the poisoning of Russians abroad who were inimical to him and severely cracked down on LGBTQ community at home. He has tamed the media and recently arrested those who protested the war in Ukraine.

He recently amended the Russian Constitution so the he could be President for life. He would be president till 2036. Ukraine may just be the start. There are reports that he is planning to take over Moldova after he is done with Ukraine. Truly, Putin is metamorphosing into the Hitler of the 21st Century.

The sooner the world gets rid of a despot like Putin, the better for the world. He should meet the same fate as that of Saddam Hussien of Iraq, captured and hanged till death.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button