Why War in Ukraine

Russia’s Worse Fear

I was eating breakfast yesterday and trying to find something on the TV except for teams I have never heard of playing basketball. Then I caught the last few seconds of a BBC sound bite by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying Putin was afraid of democracy. Everyone I have heard says he is afraid of NATO expansion, even the Chinese agree, but that didn’t make any sense to me. NATO has been in existence for over seventy years without attacking anyone. Why would he fear attack from them now? Then when I heard the excerpt by the Prime Minister, it suddenly clicked into place. Putin isn’t afraid of NATO’s military power; he’s threatened by the close proximity of democracy.

I have had the good fortune to see much of the world during my 26 years in the military. As a young man, I saw firsthand the official paranoia of communist governments. The Berlin wall was built to keep their citizens separated from the rest of the world. I observed farmers harvest hay near the border under the watchful eye of armed soldiers. When my wife and I went on her dream cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg, we were warned not to stray from the watchful eye of our guide. I thought the warning was for our protection, but it was actually to protect the Russian people from our influence. I didn’t understand what they were afraid of. The Chinese, on the other hand, know full well. When we visited China twenty-two years ago, we were escorted everywhere we went. We were not at liberty to deviate from the planned itinerary. Communist governments are totalitarian and maintain power by intimidation and force.

I have only visited one actual monarchy, and that was by accident. As the manager of the Air Force aerial refueling program, I had the opportunity to attend a super-secret meeting on one of our ships docked in Bahrain. When our meeting was over, I was booked on a local twenty-minute light to Riyadh, Saudi Ariba then direct to New York. When I deplaned in Riyadh, I was met by a security official who demanded to know what I was doing in their country. I explained where I had been, and that I was going home. My US military ID and diplomatic passport didn’t seem to impress him. Two armed guards escorted me into an interrogation room that had all the trappings of a poor spy movie. The lights were dimmed except for the spotlight directly in my face. I was asked the same questions four or five times. I was searched, and my bags were unpacked with the contents laid out on a long table. After about a half hour, I was told to gather up my possessions. I was then taken in an electric golf cart out onto the taxiway and loaded into the rear door of a Pan Am 747 headed for New York. As I boarded the plane, I was warned never to come back to Saudi Arabia. I was more than happy to comply.

Communist countries control their citizens and visitors the same way monarchies do. We have heard the term oligarchy used recently to describe Putin’s government. Only party members have a say in government at any level. The party is organized in a pyramid bureaucracy with the Secretariat at the top. These few very rich men control power in Russia much the same as the mafioso dons controlled the mobs of the 1930s. This oligarchy of party elite rule by force independent of popular elections. The secrete police (Putin was once its head) control the Russian people’s access to outside information and influence. The news recently reported that Facebook was banned and the media were not allowed to use the words, “invasion” or “war”. A democratic movement among the Russian population would threaten the establishment, and cannot be allowed.

Putin and his inner circle are fighting a war for their survival. Their enemy is not Ukraine, it is the potential spread of democracy within their own country.

Frank Watson is retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 20 years.