By Anjan Roy
What a dump Russia is in. It is a pity to see the country in this shape. Once, only the other super power in the league of the United States, today Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is unable to attend the BRICS leaders’ summit in South Africa.
This all, because of Vladimir Putin, He has dragged his country Russia with him, has fallen victim to an irrelevant view of history. Putin dreams of an Imperial Russia which spanned a greater part of eastern Europe in some distant past. He wanted to see old Russian empire in the twenty-first century as well.
In pursuit of that long forgotten past, Putin launched his Ukraine invasion to include that country into the perceived Russian Empire of twenty-first century. As if, his country is not already unmanageably large, spanning eleven time zones. He wanted more, most immediately Ukraine.
Since then, as they say, it is history. Putin has been sidelined in the international arena, and now stands isolated with increasingly fewer options for diplomatic links. He has jeopardised his own standing as well as those of the young men and women of his country.
The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced that Putin and himself have “mutually agreed” to the latter’s absence in the summit. Instead of his personal presence, Putin will address virtually. On ground, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, will stand in for Putin. His absence might have been an ordinary event, but for the ignominious reason for which he had to opt out, though the Russian foreign ministry irascibly denies it.
Behind his absence lies the story of an indictment by the International Criminal Court.
South Africa is a signatory to the agreement establishing the International Criminal Court and the country is under obligation to arrest Vladimir Putin the moment he steps on the South African soil. The International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant against Putin for war crime in connection with Russia’s decision of sending some Ukrainian children to Russia forcibly.
The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had confidentially admitted to the possibility of such a dilemma before his government in case the Russian president decided to land. He had reportedly admitted in private conversation that such an action against their president would be considered a “declaration of war” by Russia.
This is not idle talk. Earlier, in 2017, the Sudanese president was declared guilty of genocide and deliberate killing of people in his country, particularly in Darfur. The International Criminal Court had similarly passed a judgment against him and ordered his arrest.
When President al Bashir of Sudan had landed on South African soil, he was just about a few hours away from formal arrest by South African police while a local court was hearing the application for his immediate arrest from the ICC. Sudan president could escape by a hair’s breadth as the court was hearing the appeal for his arrest.
The indication of the decline of the country and its capabilities came in the last two days in another area. While Russian ruling elites are bogged down with their crazy ideas of national greatness, the actual achievements of the Soviet Union had been all allowed to fizzle away.
Soviet Union could land on the moon’s surface and place its roar with precision fifty years back. But last weekend, when its Luna 25 moon lander was to softly touchdown, the craft control was lost and it crashed on moon surface.
Fifty years back, in many ways, Soviet Union was ahead of America in space. Its achievements had spurred America to take up space seriously and resulted in the Apollo Missions which culminated in the first step of a man on the moon.
Today, Russia could not properly manage even a simple job (for them some fifty years back) of landing softly on the moon. That inability captures how far the country has lost its earlier achievements and capabilities. Instead of trying to expand its bloated size, the Russians would have done far better pursuing their sterling achievements in science and technology in the Soviet days. Wrong priorities had landed the country in such a collapse. (IPA Service)
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