 |
| Putin's coterie. Photo: Associated Press |
"The indifference to the fate of international air passengers was an echo of Russian events in the not so distant past," David Satter writes in the American Interest here.
Why should it stop? Why should Putin change his mind and start respecting other people's lives? What would make his callous majority stop being so bitterly hostile and closed-minded?
The bandits pose a clear threat to any civilian airplane over eastern Ukraine every single day. And obviously not only to the airplanes. What should keep Putinists in Russia away from extending this behaviour to the airplanes crossing Russia?
I wouldn't be surprised if one day the entire area now known as the Russian Federation will be declared a no-fly zone. Followed by a no-touch and then let-die zone, Putin's and post-Putin Russia being hermetically isolated from the rest of the world.
Putin's behaviour and his "reckless disregard for human life" (Satter), of which the shooting of MH17 is just one episode, make good strides towards his regime's propaganda and any attempts to advocate for him and his practices being stigmatised and banished as the word of hatred, inappropriate, unforgivable and unacceptable, as much as any attempt to reason for the practices of the Nazi regime and any other war criminals for that matter.
I am deeply sorry for people doing it in Latvia—attempting to advocate for war crimes. I am sorry for those who I know are trapped and whose best choice would never be to serve the inhuman soulless beast, who are struggling finding elusive words to keep up appearances and still serve someone callous, bitterly hostile and extremely closed-minded.
“Are you saying that the Ukrainian government may be accused of civil casualties?” Radio Baltkom’s host asked Boriss Cilevičs, a pro-Kremlin Saskana MP, in a recent debate programme.
“Of course! If there are casualties… You see, the important part is not who to blame. This is a different question,” said Mr Cilevičs.
I know it’s difficult. Soon impossible.