To help us understand what is at stake in the Russian-Ukrainian war and Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine in February 2022, it is essential that we learn about his attitude toward the United States and its allies in western Europe. Of the many biographies of Putin, one of the best was written by Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy. Published in 2013, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin takes an unusual approach toward Russia’s leader. Instead of a typical chronological history of his life, the authors have described six different identities that provide a portrait of his mental outlook, his worldview. I will focus in this essay on what Putin thinks about the United States.
For the leader of a major power, especially one that was a principal opponent of the United States during the entire Cold War period, Putin has demonstrated no real interest or curiosity about America. There is no evidence that Putin has any interest in American literature, music and films, or more broadly in how Americans live their lives. While very interested in Germany, where he served in the KGB, Putin repeatedly rejected proposals for informal meetings with Americans during his trips to the States, unlike those conducted by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. When he scheduled “at-home” meetings with American presidents, he showed no interest in learning about the country’s values, its system of governance, or the challenging issues it faced.
Hill and Gaddy highlight the fact that “there is no reliable record of Putin’s interactions with Americans or his thoughts on the United States during the key phases of his life,” up to and including his KGB service in Dresden, his work in the mayor’s office in St. Petersburg, and his pre-presidential years in Moscow. He did not study English or socialize with the few American students at Leningrad State University. During his years of KGB service, the views of the United States that dominated his working environment of counterespionage were ones in which America seemed dangerous and unpredictable. Once he became president of Russia, which surprised many Russians including the governing elites, he had few relationships with Americans who could have helped him gain insights into how the United States political system works and how Americans and their political leaders think.
By 2007, Putin’s anger toward the United States, who he accused of organizing the “color revolutions” in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004, reached a boiling point. At the February Munich Security Conference, in a 32-minute speech, Putin dramatically laid out his grievances against the United States. His stunning assertions included the accusation that the United States had “overstepped its national borders in every way … This is visible in the economic, political, cultural, and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this?”
Empowered by Russia’s surging revenues from oil and gas, Putin now felt free to exercise his international swagger. Hostility toward America became an increasing dynamic in the relationship between the two countries, a dynamic that became even more dangerous when Putin came back to the presidency in 2012.
The clearest indication of Putin’s current attitude toward the United States was expressed on September 22, 2022, when he signed the treaties on the accession of the four Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation. It is hard for me to include these statements of Putin without adding any commentary, but I will say this – the way he describes the United States is an exact portrayal of his own country. It is important that we listen to what Putin has said.
“The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system which allows it to live off the world, to plunder it thanks to the domination of the dollar and technology, to collect an actual tribute from humanity, to extract its primary source of unearned prosperity, the rent paid to the hegemon. . . It is critically important for them to force all countries to surrender their sovereignty to the United States.”
“I want to underscore again that their insatiability and determination to preserve their unfettered dominance are the real causes of the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia. They do not want us to be free; they want us to be a colony. They do not want equal cooperation; they want to loot. They do not want to see us a free society, but a mass of soulless slaves.”
“We are proud that in the 20th century our country led the anti-colonial movement, which opened up opportunities for many peoples around the world to make progress, reduce poverty and inequality, and defeat hunger and disease.”
“Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other nations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed and exploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world [created and run by the US] is inherently anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through.”
“They [the West, especially Americans] do not give a damn about the natural rights of billions of people, the majority of humanity, to freedom and justice, the right to determine their own future. They have already moved on to the radical denial of moral, religious, and family values.”
“Today, we [Russians] need a consolidated society, and this consolidation can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, and justice. Our values are humanity, mercy and compassion.”
Putin’s hostility toward the West, and particularly toward the United States, makes it evident that there is no likelihood of a “reset” of U.S. relations with the Russian Federation. The leadership of Ukraine has made it clear that future discussions with the Kremlin will only take place with Putin’s successor, unless this successor is one of his national security cronies who is committed to his radical animosity toward democracy, human rights, and religious freedom. After these hateful words from Putin about the United States, the Biden administration needs to take a similar position.
If you are interested in reading Putin’s full fifteen-page speech given in the Kremlin on September 30, 2022, it can be found online in English on the website of the Office of the President of Russia.