Don V. Vladimirovich Putin Quixote

Putin’s rule in Russia is defined by three delusions, or conceits, that only Don V. Vladimirovich Putin Quixote could believe.

First, that only a handful of people matter.  A leader no matter how inept or cruel is  entitled to lead and the people should obey.  His favorites, Yanukovich, Gaddafi, Mubarak, Assad and Berlusconi (with whom he recently vacationed in Crimea), were men of iron who were unfairly dethroned.  The people erred.

Second, that the world is run by security services.  The color revolutions were CIA conspiracies, as was the Arab Spring.  The people would never have thought up self-expression on their own and, like the hundreds of thousands of Russians who turned out in 2012 to protest election fraud by Putin’s United Russia Party, the people were certainly not entitled to act on their own.  Accordingly, Putin himself relies on his security services to maintain his legitimate authority against the illegitimate aspirations of the Russian people.

Third, that larger states through spheres of influence rule over lesser states, and that this is immutable.  Therefore, though independent, sovereign nations, such as Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic nations and eastern Europe, should serve the interests of greater Russia, their natural imperial overlord.  Failure to submit is punishable by Russian subversion and invasion.

Deluded by these conceits, Putin has set out to right the wrongs of a world and visit justice upon non-believers in order to restore Russia’s sphere of influence and preeminence as a global power.   Once renewed through valorous deeds, Russia will be transformed into the Soviet Union or imperial Russia or Novorussiya.

Like Don Quixote, Putin tilts repeatedly at windmills lost in his own grand illusion that he must destroy the wicked.  He humbled the unworthy knights of Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, and he threatens to humble Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Slovenia.  Knocked out of Ukraine, Putin now tilts at Syria.  There are windmills at every turn. 

With each tilt at a windmill, the humbled oligarchics--Sanchos to Putin’s Don Quixote--tremble at his rush to folly.  They remain loyal on the promise of protecting their riches.  Meanwhile, Putin’s aging nag, Rocinante, the Russian military, struggles to carry its knight forward, though a shadow of the strong and steady steed Putin imagines.

Like Don Quixote of old, Putin gives up Russia’s worldly comforts in the name of Dulcinea, his goddess of authority and power.  In so doing, our deluded, czar-errant is transformed into a thief that preys upon the increasingly confused and oppressed Russian people.  Putin’s poor Sanchos realize it is better to live a quieter life than as servants to Putin’s grand illusion.  Eventually, an old friend—an oligarchic, a general, or a member of the opposition--disguised as the Knight of the White Moon, vanquishes our sad czar and he passes from our story consumed by his own fevered grandiose dreams.  And the kingdom that never was dies with him.