My Take | Is the West sanctioning Russia or Germany?
- Saving Ukraine may have exorcised the ghosts of Munich but Putin is not Hitler; it may be inadvertently creating Weimar 2.0
If politics were chess, would you sacrifice a rook for a pawn? It’s not inconceivable. Moving towards the end game, a pawn may be in a position to threaten your opponent’s king. But if it soon becomes apparent that it’s not happening, would you still give up your rook?
More political analysts are asking why Washington continues to risk the political and social stability of Germany, the linchpin of European peace and prosperity, for Ukraine. For a short time, it might have looked to the Americans that the war offered an opportunity to wreck the Russian economy, get rid of Vladimir Putin and his cronies, and discipline the unruly Europeans.
In other words, they were aiming to do “another Ukraine” – as in getting rid of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich in 2014 and installing a pro-Western regime – but this time, the coup would be in Moscow itself. Of course, the 2014 coup, often dressed up as a popular revolution, was partly what provoked not one but two invasions from Russia in the first place.
It looks like the United States has disciplined the Europeans all too well, but achieved little else. If it couldn’t get rid of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, it’s even less likely it could send off Putin. The much-touted Ukrainian offensive has gone nowhere; it’s fair to conclude it has basically failed.
The Russian leader this week stood smiling and shaking hands with President Xi Jinping; their two countries have never been closer. Autocrats stick together, you say? Not necessarily. Given a choice, I am sure Xi would much prefer smiling and shaking hands with an American president. But Washington didn’t leave him with much of a choice.