It’s quite ironic that Victor Bout’s last name has boxing connotations. Like a prize fight, what appears to happen in the ring represents only a fraction of the action. Behind the scenes, promotors and interested parties jockey for position to ensure that the “bout” turns out they way they hope.
Quite obviously, the world would be a better place were weapons not supplied to every Johnnie-come-lately rebel group and splinter faction with an acronym for a name. The problem is that the allegiance of these extra-national groups is fluid. One moment a group might be labelled “Freedom Fighters” and the next moment, “Terrorists.” All of the powerful nations of the world have their favorites. Unfortunately, the reasons for their support to these rebel groups is not always altruistic.
Did Victor Bout supply weapons to rebel groups around the world? Probably. Does it matter? No. Let me be more specific. The point is not whether Victor Bout, per se, supplied weapons but rather, who gets to decide which groups are the so-called “good guys” and which groups are the so-called “bad guys.”
The problem with America demanding that Victor Bout be extradited to the US to stand trial is that implicit in that demand is the belief that the US should be the ultimate arbiter on which groups are good or bad. Let’s not forget that the US, according to a BBC Special I saw this past weekend (on Russian TV by the way), contracted with Victor Bouts air transport company to ferry in supplies to Iraq. An example of the United States telling the world, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Once again, I am not arguing that supplying weapons is a good thing. Rather, I am arguing that there should be a single standard applied to all of the countries of the world. If we want to halt weapon sales to the hot zones around the world then let’s, by all means, stop the arms sales. However, it is patently immoral for the US to demand that other countries stop arms sales while it gets to continue picking and choosing which rebel groups are “good” enough to get its weapons.
Hell, the US is now talking openly about a “good” Taliban and a “bad” Taliban. As we used to say when we were kids, “Who made them God?” The days of the US policy basically being, “Yup, he’s a bastard but he’s OUR bastard” should end. The world is quite tired of the double standard and the US has much more important matters to attend to back home.
What should happen is that Obama should call off his bureaucratic “attack dogs” in the Pentagon and DEA, who are using this case as a huge career booster (not that I really blame them, they are just doing their jobs after-all) and cut a deal with the Kremlin.
Actually, in the world of realpolitik, why don’t Russia and US swap Victor Bout for Mikhail Khordokovsky? Now that would truly be a split decision where both parties got a little less than they ultimately wanted, which is, after all, the measure of a fair trade.
Victor Bout comes back to Russia and agrees not to do any more international trade, while Khordokovsky is paroled from prison and agrees to stay out of politics. The Russophobes in the West have criticized Putin for basically telling the tycoons (i.e. oligarchs) to stay out of politics. I would suggest that the US government is doing something similar by pursuing Victor Bout. They are saying to the world, “Only we get to supply weapons to the groups around the world whom we deem to be “good guys” and the rest of you should stay out of the weapons business.” At the end of the day, neither “good” guys nor “bad” guys should be able to buy weapons from anyone except for the United Nations. The UN should be the only weapons broker on the planet.
I voted for Obama and I expect Obama to change US foreign policy from being a “first among equals” to a “partner among equals” approach. The Victor Bout trade for Khordokovsky would be a great start. However, were I he, I wouldn’t wait too long because Bout may just win his case in Thailand next week and then there would be no split decision.
Convention wisdom is a funny thing. You question it at your own peril. In America, the conventional wisdom is that Putin is an autocrat who is anti-Democratic and wants to restore the empire as it existed under the Soviet Union. When I go on record and disagree with this conventional wisdom I am attacked by many in the Russophobic crowd. Just wait, I will be attacked for this very blog post.
My take on Putin is a bit different. First of all, Putin is the Prime Minister of Russia and his primary concern is the well-being of Russian and not winning a popularity contest in the West. His “bedside manner” is quite unapologetically blunt. His suffers no fools and demands respect. He is not a diplomate. He is the classic Russian boss. When he issues an order he expects that it will be carried out exactly as he specified.
Putin understands his country’s psyche much better than most. Russia is a country in transition. Everything he has done in the past 9 years, and before, he has done with the goal of making Russia stronger, more stable, and independent of the aid of another country or organization (e.g. the IMF in the 1990’s).
It’s important to remember that Putin has a first rate intellect. When he speaks with foreign reporters each year at his home, he needs no notes. He is very well versed on almost all important issues concerning Russia. One of the biggest problems facing Putin today is that people don’t take his words at face value. Due to the horribly biased coverage of Putn in the Western press, most people think Putin must have a hidden agenda. I don’t think he has one.
In the video below try to listen to Putin with an open mind. Putin is trying to engage us in a serious discussion. He is saying that the problems with face need strong and intelligent people to put their minds together. What is so striking to me about Putin’s speech is that he is NOT standing there saying he has all the answers. No, Putin is highlighting those issues which he believes are important.
There is an unique window of opportunity for those in power in the West to engage Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev as equal partners. If Barack Obama is able to have the inner fortitude to stand up to conventional wisdom and speak seriously with Russia’s leaders then I am very hopeful that we will see a new era of bilateral relations begin. We are fortunate to have such intelligent and serious leaders in both countries.
It may be hard for many in the West who so gloatingly thought that “America won the Cold War” and that our system was the best way to “create wealth and deliver freedom to the developing countries around the world.” Unfortunately, things are never so simple. We didn’t win the Cold War. No, instead the Soviet Union lost the Cold War itself. If my viewpoint is correct then this means that are gloating was misplaced. Our neo-classical version of market capitalism has produced horrible imbalances since 1991. We are now feeling the symptoms of the systems root flaws.
Therefore, it would be wise for us in the West to listen to a country and its leaders who have themselves gone through a change in economic systems. Our problems will not be solved by bailouts and time. No, our “market fundamentalist” approach will need to be fully overhauled before we begin to build prosperity again. We need to discard the false Gods of “growth” and the false promise of unlimited credit. The West has so many positive qualities and attributes but self-reflection is not high on the list. But it is self-reflection that Mr. Putin is suggesting we all do together to come-up with a new system that is neither a planned economy nor an unregulated free market economy. The goal, according to Mr. Putin, is that the new system should be something closer to what we call “Stakeholder Capitalism.” Markets remain an effective tool of allocating resources but that our priorities must be broader than simply shareholder profits.
Listen to Mr. Putin with an open and thoughtful mind. You may find that you too will begin to question conventional wisdom.
I’m very excited for the world premier of the documentary, Objectified, at the South by Southwest film festival in March. Take a look at this trailer and I think you, too, will be pretty pumped-up to see the full film. A little bonus of the film is that it will take us inside of Apple’s [...]
Yesterday, was a great day. Leave your cynicism at home. Anyone, American or not, who didn’t feel pride at watching Barack Obama take his oath of office, really needs to question their outlook on life. The one photo which captured the magic of the moment for me is when young Sasha proudly gave her Papa [...]
The Kremlin website offers its english language visitors the opportunity to subscribe to 5 separate RSS/Atom feeds. As all of you know, I thought it might be beneficial if Russia Watchers could subscribe to these RSS feeds through the mobile SMS platform of Twitter.com.
So I created the Twitter account called Kremlin_ru_eng and used the service [...]
Here’s a pretty comprehensive lists of hotels in Krasnodar. 2009 is the last year Krasnodar will be without an international brand. The Marriott will open a hotel on Krasnaya Street (the Newbury Street of Krasnodar) in 2010. I will be interested to see the Intourist this Spring when their renovations are complete. While most of [...]
I suspect by now most of you have heard of Twitter and some of you are actively using it. If not, Twitter is a “micro-blogging” service which is now the fastest growing “social network” in the world. Basically, you can broadcast from your account SMS messages up to a maximum of 140 characters in length. [...]
What a huge difference it makes when you remove the filter of the foreign press covering Putin, in particular, and Russia, in general. Putin does not get enough credit. He is well-prepared, knowledgeable, and quite reasonable. The following is the english language translation of Putin’s press conference today in Moscow with foreign journalists concerning the gas dispute in [...]
Today, while doing some digital house cleaning on the hundreds of logins I have stored in my 1Password app, I came across an account I have with My OpenID.com. I had originally opened the account a long, long time ago (maybe even in 2006) when there had been some buzz in the blogosphere about the [...]
Although setting up a GoDaddy.com account and registering a domain isn’t really rocket science, most of my friends and family would still prefer for me to just do it for them. I’m telling people all the time that they should really buy their name as a dot com domain if it’s still available. It’s my [...]
