Putinomics

Russia’s military invasion of Georgia, Stalin’s home state, has generated world condemnation and calls for economic sanctions. Economic sanctions are short sighted and won’t work. The minute any state questions or challenges Russia or its oil czar, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia instinctively resorts to Cold War totalitarian bombastic rhetoric and tactics, which includes military confrontation.

Putin is well aware of the response his Putinomic actions will elicit and is prepared to pay the price. He has called America’s bluff.

The new cold war Russia has launched, unlike the first one, is not a fight for military supremacy, but rather for respect and security. Putin is transforming Russia into a new economic oil and gas superpower with vast bargaining power over America and the European community. Russia is the world’s eighth largest producer of crude oil and the largest of natural gas. Russia is also third only to China and Japan as a holder of Western government securities. Moscow is using its energy clout for geopolitical gain. Especially in the regions that were once under Soviet control but are now independent countries.

Russia and Putin are angry and fuming at America for what they perceive as deliberate bad-faith dealings. It dismantles the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, folds up and abolishes the Warsaw Pact. And what does America do instead of being supportive and welcoming? It surrounds Russia with NATO and a missile defense system it places in the former Soviet puppet states of Poland and the Czech Republic to allegedly defend against any missiles launched from Iran. Sound right? Is it any surprise Russia invaded Georgia? Georgia lost a war with Abkhaz separatists in the early 1990s. Since then the area has been a self-declared republic that sought independence and finally got it.

The Cold War border effectively moved from Germany to Poland, Czech Republic and Georgia. Not bad for America. It thought it had a first down in Poland and the new Cold War until the ugly Russian interception and touchdown in Georgia. Moscow will not under any circumstances accept that America is the sole world superpower. Russia’s actions are supported and backed by the Russian people.

Russia’s strategic security will not be sacrificed and it is being secured with its recycled petrodollars loaned to the West. Imposing economic sanctions on Russia will only result in more economic and geopolitical interceptions by Russia that will cost America dearly. America, faced with a global recession it helped bring about, cannot afford to marginalize Russia and its Putinomic clout. America and Russia must reach an accommodation.