This time, Russia must pay

When Putin started the Chechen war to propel himself to the president’s seat, he bombed civilians’ homes in Moscow and committed war crimes in Chechnya, obliterating whole cities, much like what we see happening in Ukraine. All of this went unpunished. Russia didn’t pay a single kopeck (1% of the rouble) for all this destruction. The journalists in Russia who tried investigating this were either exiled, jailed, or killed.

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the West shrugged. There were some economic sanctions, the rouble depreciated (and hasn’t recovered since), and many businesses went bankrupt. But the West still kept buying gas from Russia, sending billions of dollars to Putin, allowing him to finance the war in East Ukraine and build reserves to prepare for a full-scale invasion that we see today.

When Russia bombed Syria in 2016, killing hundreds of civilians by pushing its political agenda, a similar thing happened: it was allowed to leave the crime scene unpunished.

For the past two decades, Putin got used to the idea that he can do whatever he wants, and he won’t have to pay and won’t be held responsible.

There’s a popular opinion in the current war between Russia and Ukraine that the West or Ukraine should give something to Putin so that he stops his atrocities. They’re trying to figure out how to appease him. (“Perhaps if he just takes East Ukraine or succeeds in bombing military bases, he’ll stop.”)

This must stop. Now.

When people ask what the West can do to stop Russia, the answer is pretty straightforward. Yet, the West shies away from it.

This time, Russia must pay.

It should pay in its total economic collapse and a full-blow military defeat in Ukraine. Today, President Zelensky and his team have calculated that Ukraine will need $7B per month to keep its economy afloat. This money should come from Russia’s pocket.

A famous Ukrainian philosopher, Volodimir Yermolenko, has said:

“One of the light motifs of Russian culture, by the way, is the motif of “Crime and Punishment,” as we all know. The novel of Dostoyevsky. But actually, what we have in Russian political culture, in Stalinism, for example, is crime without punishment and punishment without crime. All those people who were sent to gulags without any trials or were exterminated, killed, they were punished without a crime”

Russia is not as strong as it seems. For one, it wanted to capture Kyiv in less than 48 hours. It was boasting of being “the second strongest army in the world”, but Ukraine, with a quarter of the Russian population, has kicked Russia’s ass.

As we’re nearing the beginning of the third month of the war, it’s time the world realises: that Russia must pay.

Because if Russia is not punished and is not kept responsible for its crimes, it will continue to commit them.