For once, the West seems determined to impose costs on a rampaging Putin. The US decision on Monday to expel 60 Russians diplomats following the murderous nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain on March 4 underlines a welcome display of solidarity against an increasingly thuggish Russia under Vladimir Putin. The former KGB agent who now rules Russia with an iron fist has defied all canons of civilized international behavior.
The attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, both of whom are now British citizens, in Sailsbury has elicited widespread condemnation from the global community. After establishing that the military grade nerve agent used to attack the former double agent and his daughter, both of whom are now fighting for their lives in a hospital, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats, mostly intelligence officials enjoying diplomatic immunity. Several members of the European Union, persuaded that the source of the nerve gas could only be Russia, followed up with its own expulsions of Russian diplomat-spies. But it is Monday’s decision by the Trump administration which is most significant. One, because Trump has been at pains to be seen to be friendly towards Putin’s Russia for not-so-secret reasons.
And, two, because of the sheer number of diplomats and intelligence officials ordered to return home within a week as also the outright closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle. As the British prime minister Theresa May told the House of Commons after the US expulsions, it was “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.” A number of other western nations, too, have registered protest against the murderous attack on the British soil against a former Russian double agent by expelling multiple Russian diplomats. Following the British expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, the Putin regime had ordered a tit-for-tat expulsion of as many British diplomats.
However, it is yet to be seen what response the Kremlin boss has for the expulsions by the US and other nations. Over 130 Russian diplomats have been expelled by 21 countries since the nerve-agent attack on Skripal. That Russia under Putin has defied the established norms of behaviour in the international arena is beyond doubt. Its not-so-secret war against Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea, its interference in the US election process, the alleged effort to influence the Brexit referendum, hacking of the computer networks of several western nations, trolls against western leaders perceived to be hostile to it, donations to political parties, etc., underline the growing malignancy at the heart of the Putin presidency. Even his intervention in Syria on behalf of the killer Assad regime was meant to halt in its tracks the nascent but welcome movement in the Islamic world towards an open, democratic society.
However, expert Russia watchers argue that the expulsions do not really hurt Putin. Indeed, he may exploit them to further firm up support of the people by painting the West as anti-Russia. What will hurt him is the attack on the moneybags close to him who have invested big-time in prime real estate assets in western cities, especially London. If the Russian oligarchs close to Putin find their illicit assets taken away by the Western powers, it might pinch Putin directly and immediately. The Russian dictator, said to be one of the wealthiest leaders in the world, having allegedly amassed hundreds of billions of dollars by bartering away Russia’s natural resources, needs to be treated like an international pariah for his malign conduct. He is often accused of sanctioning murder of his opponents at home and abroad. Civilised nations do not conduct their affairs in such a criminal manner. Of course, Putin will not change. It is for the civilised world to put him in his place. The expulsions of Russian diplomats might be the beginning of that process. The seizure of financial assets, mobile and immobile, of the Putin cronies should be the next logical step a united West can take against the growing menace of the big bully in Kremlin.
