Vladimir Putin, Tsar of all the Russias

Vladimir Putin has already announced his intention to take back the presidency of Russia from his puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, in 2012.  He has also announced his intention to retain the presidency for 12 years, until 2024. 

Such is the sorry state of Russian democracy, that Putin’s intentions will be realized. If necessary, ballot boxes will be stuffed, rival candidates will be terminated, and media criticism will be suppressed. In the Hobbesian world that is Russia, the people are only too willing to prostrate themselves before this Leviathan.  The ex-KGB thug once again will openly assume absolute power over the people.

Vladimir Putin, however, aspires to much more than this. His expectations reach back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of all the Russias. To this end, Putin intends to reimpose Russia’s iron grip on much of the former Russian/Soviet empire. Russia itself is far too small to satisfy the rising ambitions of this little man.

“Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed forming a ‘Eurasian Union’ of former Soviet nations, saying the bloc could become a major global player competing for influence with the United States, the European Union and Asia.  Mr. Putin, who has lamented the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,’ denied that his proposal represents an attempt to rebuild the Soviet empire. But he said in an article published Tuesday in the daily Izvestia that the new alliance should emerge as ‘one of the poles of the modern world, serving as an efficient link between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region.’ Vladimir Isachenkov, ‘Putin floats idea of former Soviet nations forming bloc’, The Washington Times October 5, 2011

 Under Putin’s prime ministership, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have already formed an economic alliance that has removed custome barriers in mutual trade.  They are to introduce unified market rules and regulations on January 1, 2012. As one will understand these rules and regulations emanate from Russia, rather than through negotiated compromise. 

 Tsar Putin has now signaled his intent to restore the Kremlin’s sway over other former Soviet states with non-democratic leaderships in an ‘authoritarian consolidation’.

‘He is busying himself with the gathering of the lands’ wrote journalist Pavel Sheremet in a blog, using a medieval term for the conquest by Muscovy of its neighbors. Charles Clover and Isabel Gorst, ‘Putin urges creation of Eurasian Union’, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2011

One suspects that Pavel Sheremet may not be long for this world.  A cup of tea, Mr. Sheremet?

Putin already has his greedy eyes on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, anticipating that both countries will join the grouping.  A little further down the road, Ukraine and even Georgia, may feel the Tsarist yoke tightening around their unwilling necks.  First, however, Tsar Putin will have to restore his military to pre-1991 strength. Russia’s recent experience in skirmishing with Georgia cannot raise any immediate confidence in Muscovy’s expansion through force of arms.

Surely, Putin’s designs for a Eurasian Union do not stop at the level of a customs union. He already talks about the creation of a common currency – the rouble no doubt is on his mind.  But  the Eurasian Union will become much more than that:

Mr. Putin’s language was reminiscent of ‘Eurasianism’ – a hard-line ideology that has gained a following in Moscow’s ruling circles and which argues that the territory of the former Russian empire is a single, indivisible political and cultural unit.  Alexander Dugin, head of the Eurasian Movement and a noted proponent of the idea, said Mr. Putin needed an ‘ideology, a reason why he needs to come back.’  Charles Clover and Isabel Gorst, ‘Putin urges creation of Eurasian Union’, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2011

Vladimir Putin does not need an ideology in order to return to his natural role. All he needs is a craving for power – which he has in plenty.  Nevertheless, Alexander Dugin is a man to watch as the new Eurasian Empire emerges.

No cup of tea for Mr. Dugin. Unless his ambitions unwisely rise too fast, and reach too far!

Tags: beware the Tsar, cups of tea, Eurasian Union, Ivan the Terrible, tsar of all the Russias, Ukraine and Georgia under the yoke of Muscovy, Vladimir Putin