Six years ago, on March 4, 2012, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was re-elected to a third six-year term as Russia’s president, after swapping roles with Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president and currently serves as prime minister. In a series of seven lengthy articles, Mr. Putin described his future presidential foreign policy agenda, which focused on lambasting the United States as the main source of evil in the world.
Journalists and political scientists did, of course, read the articles but were not impressed, finding little substance or true novelty. The purpose of the publications, according to Pavel Felgenhauer of the Eurasia Daily Monitor, was not meant to win many votes, but, as in typical authoritarian regimes, was meant for one reader – the official author himself. At the time, the text of the articles was being published in Moscow as a separate book to be distributed to the faithful.
Mr. Putin’s foreign policy article, “Russia and the Changing World,” accused the West and the United States of meddling in the internal affairs of states to induce regime change under the guise of “promoting democracy,” including the destabilization of the Middle East by supporting the “so-called Arab Spring” and fanning anti-Putin sentiment amongst Russia’s political opposition groups. Mr. Putin also denounced additional sanctions against Iran and Syria and cited U.S. interventionism as the main reason Iran and North Korea were pursuing nuclear capabilities.
Russia’s main military challenge, according to Mr. Putin was Russia’s response to U.S. and NATO plans to deploy ballistic missile defenses in Europe. He announced in Sarov, a closed city of 100,000 inhabitants surrounded by barbed wire security fences and a strategic asset to Russia’ nuclear weapons production since the 1940s, that the Defense Ministry and General Staff budgetary requests had been earmarked for building a new generation of ICBMS to be aimed at the U.S.
In 2012, Mr. Putin touted that since 2008 Russia had “deployed 39 new ICBMs, commissioned two new strategic submarines, 12 medium-range Iskander rockets launchers and a wide range of other weapons systems.” In Sarov, Mr. Putin gloated about a new T-50 “fifth-generation jet fighter” that was to be produced with India.
Mr. Felgenhauer’s analysis stated that Mr. Putin was gripped by paranoia and megalomania, increasingly losing contact with reality. Mr. Putin stated that public opinion in Europe was changing, NATO was disintegrating and major European nations were soon to turn against the U.S. and ally with Russia. Much of the material in the series of articles was meant for the Russian domestic audience and to quell opposition at home, with imminent threats of violent repression of the pro-democracy movement.
Mr. Putin reiterated that calls for “free and fair elections” were supported from abroad to destabilize Russia, using illegal soft power. “The opposition is preparing to falsely declare the [March 4] presidential elections illegal and rigged.” Mr. Putin also claimed that opposition protest rallies and provocation were being prepared, expecting an opposition figure to be killed and later blame the authorities. The message to the opposition was clear: accept the results of a phony presidential election and shut up – “accept the will of the majority” – or else.
Source: “Putin prepares to fight internal, external enemies after re-election,” by Pavel Felgenhauer, The Ukrainian Weekly, March 11, 2012.