Putin is wearing “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Ukrainian American Bar Association, 
Wash, D.C., Thu, Feb 19, 2015

About 175 yearsago, Hans Christian Anderson wrote a children’s fairytale, - The Emperor’sNew Clothes - about a narcissistic monarch who was deceived by his tailorsinto believing that his non-existent new garb which they pretended to weave wasreal but would be invisible only to those who were hopelessly stupid orincompetent.  The gullible emperor paraded in his imaginary non-attirebefore his subjects.  Fearing that saying the truth to the vain sovereignwould jeopardize their position in his imperial court, none of his ministers orcitizens of his kingdom dared to state the self-evident – that the emperor hadno clothes.

Similarly,Vladimir Putin has clad himself in a fictitious political costume weaved out ofdisinformation and lies and is pompously pretending that the war in easternUkraine is not of his making.  According to Putin, there are no Russianmilitary units in the Donbas area of Ukraine, which in his mind, is not even areal country.  However, unlike the credulous emperor in Hans ChristianAnderson’s fairytale, Putin knows full well the truth and that his fabricatedpolitical “regalia” - contrived of deception and deceit - is fully transparentto all.  But he also realizes that he will not be critically challenged byWestern media nor the West’s political elite.  After all, in Putin’s mind,Western leaders and their media are hopelessly naïve, stupid and incompetentand will behave similarly to the emperor’s subjects in the fairytale and will consciouslyignore reality.

Putin’s calculusis that as a result of pluralistic ignorance, ["no one believes, buteveryone thinks that everyone believes."] no one in the West will counterthe obvious since it would jeopardize their self-interest and preconceived viewof the world order.  Calling out Putin would require a clearacknowledgment that the world order and international rule of law – sopainstakingly constructed since World War II - is no longer the status quoand that any rollback of the Kremlin’s illegal land grab in Ukraine requiresstrong affirmative and unified action by the West, including arming Ukraine soit can defend itself.  These are measures the West is loath totake.  

The primarybedrock upon which Putin has built his political charade is the contrivedconcept that the conflict in eastern Ukraine is a spontaneous internalinsurrection by Russian residents of Ukraine ignited by long simmeringdisgruntlement over the central Ukrainian government in Kyiv.  Overlaid onthis fallacious premise is the intentionally misleading notion that easternUkraine was always a part of Russia and that the majority of the populace arehistorically ethnically Russian.  In the logical progression of thesefallacies, carefully weaved and propagated by the Kremlin’s age olddisinformation machine, the combatants of the Donetsk and Luhansk “PeoplesRepublics” allegedly reflect the majority will of the Russian people of easternUkraine to rejoin the Russian “Mir” (world).  Therefore, the actions ofthese righteous rebels are morally and politically justifiable.  As such,the Kremlin has proclaimed that it is Russia’s divine duty and obligation tosupport their ethnic brethren.  Using these canards as camouflage, Putininitiated an alternative non-conventional form of aggressive warfare againstUkraine using hired mercenaries that are trained, supplied with offensivelethal weapons, and directed by Russia.  Russian Special Forces withoutinsignia intermingle with the mercenaries and openly use sophisticated weaponsthat only regular Russian military units possess and have the requiredexpertise to use. 

The Kremlin’sfallacies have been debunked by historians, scholars and independent observerson the ground and do not reflect reality.  Nevertheless, Western politicalleaders and the media have gullibly accepted these Kremlin inspired myths asfact or knowingly refuse to challenge them.  They continue to call theRussian military operatives/mercenaries as “separatists” and “Ukrainian rebels”rather than calling them what they truly are – “terrorists” and “invaders”,thereby propagating even further the Kremlin’s disingenuous mythology. Even though Russian military forces have been in the zone of conflict ineastern Ukraine since its inception, the West is only very recently [and veryreticently] acknowledging their presence on Ukrainian soil.  However, theWestern political elites still fail to call the obvious Russian militaryactivity for what it has been all along -- an aggressive military invasion byRussia of its neighbor, Ukraine, in violation of all international norms andrule of law. 

Meantime, Putincontinues his arrogant procession on the world’s political arena smugly clothedin his political costume falsely proclaiming that Russia is not a party to theconflict and all that it wants in Ukraine is peace; but no western leader hashad the moral or political fortitude to confront him with the nakedtruth.  It is naively assumed by Western political leaders that if theyremain mum as to the true reality of Putin’s actions – a premeditated militaryinvasion of Ukraine - then he will not be a danger to their geopoliticalself-interest as long as they pretend he is not a menace to the world order andthat he can be successfully dealt with through diplomacy.

Western leadersmust immediately accept that Putin has been wearing “The Emperor’s New Clothes”and their failure to confront him with the naked truth [and to take timelyaffirmative action to stop his military invasion of Ukraine] has emboldened himand exacerbated the potential for an irreversible danger to the peace andsecurity of Europe.  The time has come for Western leaders to shed theirpluralistic ignorance of Putin and to boldly confront the reality of hisactions and supply Ukraine with the military weapons necessary to defenditself, thereby preserving Ukraine’s security and that of Europe and the worldas a whole.

February 19, 2015

Forfurther information, please contact

MyroslawSmorodsky, Esq.

CommunicationsDirector of the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA)
Tel: 201-507-4500; Email; myroslaw@smorodsky.com; Website; www.smorodsky.com