Like me, you probably find this cartoon chilling and amusing in equal measure.
President Vladimir V. Putin has offered one clear new direction for the country: the development of a conservative, nationalist ideology…
The Kremlin is dipping into a deep pool of history: Cossacks are revered here for their bravery and pre-modern code of honor, like cowboys in the United States or samurai in Japan. But their legacy is bound up with battle and vigilante-style violence, including campaigns against Turks, Jews and Muslim highlanders.
(New York Times, March 16, 2013)
No doubt you recall the furor and apprehension Russia incited worldwide last year when it enacted a law effectively making any public display of or support for homosexuality a crime.
I’m already on record opposing an Olympic boycott over Russia granting NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum. And even though I am far more sympathetic to a boycott over its anti-gay laws, I oppose this one as well.
Because, instead of humbling Russia the way boycotts humbled South Africa, I fear this will only harden the heart of Russia’s wannabe Stalin, Vladimir Putin. Even worse, he might consider it a crossing-the-Rubicon provocation in the Cold War II he’s been fighting against the United States for almost two decades.
(“Boycott Olympics Over Anti-Gay Laws? Hmmm…,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 10, 2013)
Thankfully, you can spot Czar Putin’s Cossack crusaders from regular security forces by the modified Beefeater tall hats they wear.
Beware!
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