The Corner

World

Freedom vs. Tyranny, Cont.

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Imposing martial law, Polish tanks enter the town of Zbąszyń on December 13, 1981. (Public domain via Wikimedia)

I remember very well when eastern European nations became members of NATO. It turned out to be much more important than many of us suspected.

The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said something very sensible last week:

And here is the foreign minister of Lithuania:

From American opponents of helping the Ukrainians, you often hear some version of this: “Ukraine will always mean more to Russia than it does to us.” It depends on whom you mean by “us.” But consider some other things.

“Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will always mean more to Russia than they do to us.” Those three were among the “captive nations” in the Soviet Union. Putin’s Kremlin would like them back — back in the “fold,” the prison: “the prisonhouse of nations.”

“Poland will always mean more to Russia than it does to us.” Poland was a member of the “Soviet bloc” — unwilling, of course.

“Taiwan will always mean more to China than it does to us.” “Tibet will always mean more . . .” “The Uyghurs will always mean more . . .”

On and on and on.

Say there is a woman whose neighbor wants to rape and enslave her. In a sense, she “means more” to him (the neighbor) than to others. So what?

Israel means a lot to Hamas. The existence of Israel is an offense unto Hamas (just as the existence of Ukraine is an offense unto Putin and his gang). Israel means a lot to the Iranian mullahs — who would like to blast Israel from the face of the earth.

Ukraine, Estonia, and the rest have a right to their nationhood — whether their neighbor wants to kill or capture them or not.

• I thought that Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, had a pretty good response to Pope Francis:

There was once a Polish pope who was very wise in these matters.

• Very interesting is a conversation between two presidents — Wałęsa and Clinton — in 1993. “If Russia again adopts an aggressive foreign policy,” said Wałęsa, “that aggression will be directed toward Ukraine and Poland.”

• Putin held another “election.” (You’ll never believe it: He won.) Look what some Russians did — incredibly brave, under the circumstances:

• In 2018, Putin held another of his sham elections. President Trump’s advisers resorted to all caps in the briefing book they prepared for him: “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” Trump congratulated Putin.

Xi of China congratulated Putin on his latest “election.” So did Modi of India (“warm congratulations”). Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy, said that “when people vote, they are always right.” (Salvini is a darling of the “national conservatives” in America and elsewhere. He is also a strong, unblushing supporter of Putin and his regime.)

• A phone call between the French president, Macron, and Putin is highly interesting. It took place four days before Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Also interesting — highly — is a call between Macron and the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, as Putin’s full-scale invasion began:

• Here is something quite typical:

But remember: Putin’s forces are liberating Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine from their Nazi oppressors. Any information to the contrary is CIA propaganda.

• Some news out of Lithuania:

The attack on Leonid Volkov, a close aide of late Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, was a well-planned case of political terrorism, a senior Lithuanian official told the media on March 14.

Volkov, who left Russia in 2019 fearing for his personal security, was attacked late on March 12 with a meat hammer by an unidentified assailant in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, leaving him bloodied, with a broken arm and other injuries.

The attack occurred less than a month after the death of Navalny under suspicious circumstances at a prison in the Russian Arctic.

For the rest of that report — from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — go here.

• A report from the Associated Press tells us that Russia is forcing Ukrainians in occupied territories to accept Russian passports and fight in the Russian army. A chilling, horrifying report — but no surprise.

• In Newsweek, Brendan Cole writes the following:

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is exterminating religious freedom, signaling a return by Moscow to Soviet-era levels of persecution of faiths, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has said.

Sviatoslav Shevchuk was in Washington D.C. this week with a delegation of his church’s senior figures to express gratitude for U.S. help toward Kyiv so far, in what he described as a “David versus Goliath” battle between Ukraine and Russia over two years of war. . . .

“Today, in the occupied territory, there is not one Catholic priest. All my priests, even the Roman Catholic priests, were all expelled or imprisoned,” Shevchuk told Newsweek . . .

• Something else of interest — from the AP:

For Vladimir Putin, victory in Ukraine may run through Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

In recent weeks, Russian state media and online accounts tied to the Kremlin have spread and amplified misleading and incendiary content about U.S. immigration and border security. The campaign seems crafted to stoke outrage and polarization before the 2024 election for the White House, and experts who study Russian disinformation say Americans can expect more to come as Putin looks to weaken support for Ukraine and cut off a vital supply of aid.

(To read the article in full, go here.)

As Phillips O’Brien told me in a podcast, “The Russians have gained far more geopolitical leverage out of the millions they’ve spent on information warfare than the billions they have spent on the military.”

• In 1986, Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, was seized by the Kremlin and imprisoned for 13 days. Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, has been imprisoned for a year. Vladimir Putin is true to his Soviet roots. His predecessors would be proud of him. The Free World ought to oppose him mightily.

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