Dear President Putin,
I am writing to you, as a simple Western citizen, daring to challenge your policy of war. I know you are not bothered by my opinion in the slightest, nor by me as a person who you could crush at any time just as one might squash an insignificant fly. Living in London, I know to what lengths you go… we all remember the polonium-210 you served in a Japanese restaurant in the heart of the English capital to eliminate your former colleague, by then a British citizen, simply because he had become a threat to your reputation. But you see, using my pen is the only way for me to resist you and so many like you, to protest against aggression, humiliation, violence, hatred, expansionist nationalism, murder and war for which you have become a flag bearer.
It is abundantly clear that you are preparing to wage a new war against Ukraine, the country you hate so much, I suspect because your ego was hurt by the two revolutions of 2004 and 2014. Brotherhood among Slavic peoples has disappeared from your political speech but, if it still exists even a tiny bit in your heart, please recognize how your macho, superhero political style destroys thousands of Ukrainian families; families who every single day are burying their young men and women for whom they dreamed of a bright future. I hesitate to mention here the hundreds of children that your warplanes indiscriminately killed in Syria and dare to suggest that if this Levant country has plunged into barbarism this is partly due to your unconditional support for the ruthless Assad dynasty; any peaceful transition has thus been doomed from the start.
Clearly your international propaganda through RT (Russia Today) and numerous bribes generously donated to certain opportunistic Western careerists and businessmen together with your unconditional support for leaders of extreme right-wing and far-left parties in Europe has been undeniably successful. How many times have I heard from French, British, Spanish and even South American intellectuals how you are the real bulwark against fundamentalist Islam and that the Revolution of Dignity on Maidan Square in Kyiv was a coup orchestrated by the CIA? But luckily for you, these people have no idea of the reality in Dagestan and Chechnya, they have never set foot in the Caucasus, nor in Ukraine and they stupidly repeat that this country is divided between Ukrainian and Russian speakers. Had they actually set foot in Kyiv, they would have noticed that the lingua franca is still Russian, that is if they are able to distinguish between these two Slavic languages.
Your war against Ukraine – at a time when Europe is weakened by Brexit, Islamist terrorism in France, the migrant crisis in Germany, political instability in Türkiye and with the US paralyzed by fear of a disastrous presidential election – will be counterproductive because it will cause at the end of the day enmity between your two countries for generations to come and will eventually accelerate the Westernization of a free Ukraine. Your chaos may trigger a change of government in Kyiv and the new leaders will be more willing to adopt fresh reforms and start a process of de-russification that will spread through Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipro with much popular support.What will remain of Russia after your death? An economically ruined country that cut itself off from Europe
What will remain of Russia after your death? An economically ruined country that cut itself off from Europe at a time when Europe saw Russia as a friend and main economic partner, a generally impoverished population (stemming from your policy of war in Ukraine), a demographic curve in free fall, accelerated by alcoholism, with a reduced life expectancy for Russian men of 60 years and Siberian men of a mere 57 years. You will leave a Siberia, over the years, populated by Chinese settlers, who one day will demand unification with their motherland. You reap what you sow, what goes around comes around, wouldn’t you agree?
You will leave a Russia surrounded by hostile neighbours; Ukrainians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Moldavians, Poles, Balts, Armenians, Romanians, Turks and Scandinavians. Even your faithful Belarusian and Kazakh friends have begun to have doubts about your country, so plagued by corruption and hawkish irredentism. You will leave behind a country caught in the midst of fear and conspiracy in which Ukrainians, the CIA, immigrants, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, human rights activists will be targeted as troublemakers.It is unfortunate that you have brought down a great nation in your desire for domination, bringing to this world nothing but fear, chaos, hatred, crime, anger, revenge and tears.
As you are no doubt aware, in all spiritual traditions vanity, ego, greed and power are the great evils of man. It is unfortunate that you have brought down a great nation in your desire for domination, bringing to this world nothing but fear, chaos, hatred, crime, anger, revenge and tears. On your deathbed, the mirror of revelation will project your true face. Once your superhero mask disappears, you will see only emptiness, the infinite void, your fall, your own damnation.
But it is not too late for redemption. You could take inspiration from Norway that intends to offer a huge mountain to her Finnish neighbour for her 100th birthday, in order to mark friendship between the two nations. President Putin, I implore you, make peace, not war, return Crimea and Donbas to your Slavic brothers and become a true source of inspiration for millions of tiny human beings who inhabit this beautiful planet and who dare to dream of a better world. You already have the power. Now you just need the courage to take the first step.
Pierre Scordia is a lecturer at University College London (London, UK)
