How has the Ukraine crisis affected political life in the West? Deeply but contradictorily. Vladimir Putin's invasion wakened sleeping populations to eternal power realities, exacerbated leftist de-platforming, and bizarrely enhanced his appeal on the Right.
Power realities: A century-long peace following the Napoleonic wars left Europeans mentally unprepared for the carnage of World War I; similarly, the 77-year peace after World War II bred a faulty European assumption that trade and diplomacy could solve the continent's problems. Military strength was seen as anachronistic as slavery. Slogans such as "There is no military solution" and "War never solved anything" prevailed.
Meanwhile, the non-West remains focused on the timeless verities of military might. Here, Xi Jinping attempts to make China a great power hegemon. There, Russia's Vladimir Putin creates two new "people's republics" and repeatedly invades neighbors to reestablish the Russian empire. Kim Jong-un builds up North Korea's nuclear arsenal and Ali Khamene'i aspires to do the same for Iran. Lesser tyrants in Venezuela, Syria, and Burma deploy the armed forces to brutalize their own peoples.
 Russia's Putin (L), China's Xi, and Iran's Rouhani at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, June 14, 2019, in Bishkek. |
Ignoring these many signs, many Westerners woke in shock on Feb. 24 to news of the Russian invasion. It turns out that crude power is not outmoded, that trade does not displace war. With unwonted speed, Switzerland terminated a neutrality going back to 1815 and sanctioned Russia. Sweden and Finland, long skittish about joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization suddenly showed interest.
Most significantly, Germany overnight undid over 50 years of Ostpolitik. Chancellor Olaf Scholz increased military spending with a one-time infusion of €100 billion and pledged to spend more than 2 percent of Germany's GDP on the military, even specifying that percentage in the constitution. To appreciate the context of this shift, note that Germany's main battle tanks declined from 5,000 in 1989 to 300 at present. He also pledged to create energy reserves for coal and natural gas, buy F-35 warplanes, and build LNG facilities. The New York Times rightly called these moves "an astonishing — and sudden — reversal to decades of German foreign policy." For the moment, delusional passivism is untenable.
 Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz gets a standing ovation during his Bundestag speech responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. |
De-platforming: Putin's outrageous actions confirmed and enhanced the Left's trend to exclude dissent. The International Chess Federation banned Sergey Karjakin, a Russian chess champion, from competing because he expressed support for the invasion. One Russian symphonic conductor, Tugan Sokhiev, temporarily resigned from the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National du Capitole in Toulouse. Another, Valery Gergiev, lost his position at the Munich Philharmonic because he did not respond to a demand from Munich's mayor that he within three days condemn Putin's "brutal war of aggression."
Most strikingly, opera singer Anna Netrebko did unhesitatingly condemn the invasion, but not Putin by name: "I am opposed to this senseless war of aggression, and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now to save all of us. We need peace right now." Perhaps she feared mentioning Putin out of fear for her family or some other legitimate concern. No matter: the Metropolitan Opera of New York City fired her, with General Manager Peter Gelb saying that "Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward." Netrebko then preemptively canceled scheduled appearances at three major European venues and Centre Stage Artist Management dropped her as a client.
 Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (L) and conductor Valery Gergiev. |
The European Union demanded that search engines basically boycott any websites connected to Russia's government, including its RT and Sputnik media, and any reproduction of their content. On their own initiative, tech giants changed their algorithms to punish Russia.
The trend became slightly absurd. Alexander Malofeev, 20, condemned the war in Ukraine as "terrible and bloody" but was nonetheless canceled by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which declared it "inappropriate" to present him. The Peoria Symphony Orchestra replaced a work by the Russian Rachmaninoff with one by the German Beethoven. The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra deleted Tchaikovsky works from its program. The University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy canceled a lecture series on Fyodor Dostoevsky. Many other symbolic acts, such as dumping vodka with Russian-sounding names or renaming Russian dressing, rounded out the foolishness.
These precedents suggest a fearsome trend: clients dropped unless they endorse Black Lives Matter, students expelled if doubtful about anthropogenic climate change, employees fired for not signing petitions condemning "Islamophobia," shops forced to close due to legal action for an unwillingness to recognize gay marriage, states losing business over transgender toilets.
Meanwhile, the crackdown on criticism of Islamism continues. In the same Germany that found its resolve versus Russia, Michael Stürzenberger was fined €800 for his unacceptable thoughts about Islam. The mainstream Right can expect to find itself ever-more de-platformed and excluded.
Putinism: The Right's growing fury at these and other leftist policies inspires a soft-spot for Putin, most visibly in the United States, though also clearly evident in France and Canada. The American trend started with the Tea Party movement, then followed with the election of Donald Trump, the "stolen election" of 2020, resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine, and now the invasion of Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson, the television host, pithily articulated this sentiment: "Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?" Carlson went on to ask whether Putin had promoted "racial discrimination" in schools, made fentanyl, or attempted "to snuff out Christianity."
 Fox News host Tucker Carlson offering support for Putin on Feb. 22, 2022. |
Putin himself cannily played to this sympathy, presenting himself as a right-wing stalwart who represents traditional values. One month after invading Ukraine, he devoted a whole speech to what he called "cancel culture" and audaciously likened the leftist criticism of author J.K. Rowling (because of her views on transgenderism) to the West canceling Russia, "an entire thousand-year-old country." Rejecting this overture, Rowling responded with #IStandWithUkraine, but the comparison did find some favor.
Summing up: The near-universal Western condemnation of Russia's invasion has improved military resolve even as it further degraded political life.
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2022 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
Mar. 30, 2022 addendum: I pursue the middle of the three topics above at "Putin Invades, the Left Further De-platforms."
