The West should have seen Putin coming – but failed to decode what his propaganda machine was telling us. This article, written before the fatal missile attack on a Malaysian airliner in July 2014, sets out clearly the game the Russian president is playing, and how ineffective the West has been in dealing with it. Putin may not have ordered the attack but he controls the chess pieces on the board.
My purpose is to draw attention to the phenomenon of a new form of crime network, in effect the globalisation of crime aided by terrorism, sometimes energised by “anti political” governments, and the hijacking of freedom movements in the developing world by people with very dubious agendas.
In the early years of his first presidency, Vladimir Putin predicted that the confluence of major criminal networks with terrorism would prove to be a major challenge for the world.
I begin by examining important recent research published by two reputable international bodies. Both show that Russia’s current prime minister got it right. Continue reading
This article first appeared in the 7 January 2009 edition of The Irish Times and is reproduced here with their kind permission.
There’s a fuzzy perception of Russia today as being like a teenager “going through a bad patch.” Squabbling with its neighbours, inclined to throw its weight about, not fully reconciled to the loss of the Soviet Empire, overkeen on the trappings of wealth, but nothing it won’t – given a bit of time – grow out of. Having observed the fall of communism with some relief, many Western observers have been prepared to indulge the Kremlin’s post-Soviet antics, “throwing shapes” while it adjusted to a new reality. Continue reading