Lawyer Iasi

BETWEEN LAW AND OUTLAW

The confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, between Putin and Zelensky, resembles the battle between David and Goliath, between unequal physical forces and means of struggle, between the normal man having only a cane and a slingshot as weapons, and a giant with armor and a copper helmet, armed with a sword, a shield and a spear. However, mythology also pointed out the vulnerabilities of those endowed with a special physical strength: Achilles' heel, the Cyclops' eye and Goliath's exposed forehead. Science seems to confirm these vulnerabilities: acromegaly has the effect of movement difficulties, visual disturbances and mental problems. Profilers listened to the public statements made by Vladimir Putin and noted dissocial personality disorders that include amoral, antisocial, asocial, psychopathic and sociopathic personality disorders.

HEIGHT

Putin and Zelensky have almost the same height: 1m70, but a few inches less for Putin. It does not bother Zelinsky who behaves casually, but these few inches seem to matter enormously to Putin who, like other dictators (Stalin, Mussolini or Ceausescu), is intrigued and tries to hide it: wearing high-heeled shoes that are well hidden by longer trousers, his meetings with taller interlocutors were recorded only from the bottom up or when they were sitting on chairs. A 2.5m tall statue of Vladimir Putin was erected in a skiing resort in Kyrgyzstan. Some studies show that people who suffer from the so-called "Napoleon complex" and especially men, behave aggressively and have dominant tendencies.

EVOLUTION

Zelensky comes from a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father was a cybernetics professor and his mother was an engineer. Volodymyr's grandfather was in the Red Army, and many members of his family died during the Holocaust. At the age of 16 he took an English language test and was awarded a scholarship to study in Israel but his father did not agree. He graduated from the law school in Kiev but did not continue to practice law. 

As he was a talented amateur actor as a teenager, he launched into show business as an actor and producer, and he co-founded a successful TV production company. Until the mid-2010s, his TV and film career was his main concern. In 2015, he became the lead actor in the satirical TV series "Servant of the People", where he played the role of a history teacher who undertook the presidency of Ukraine after a student had published a viral anti-corruption tirade. The political adventure of Volodymyr Zelensky began on New Year's Eve, on 31st December 2018, when he announced his presidential candidacy and told the Ukrainians that "they would have a new servant of the people."

His campaign used the story of the film, portraying him as a simple man who confronted corrupted politicians and who was ready to fight for peace in the east of the country. (Zelensky came to power in 2019, on the people's anger wave when the biggest problem was the conflict with its eastern neighbour, Russia, that had already annexed Crimea five years before, and had supported the separatists in a war where 15,000 people had been killed. Thus, Zelensky was identified with the aspirations of the people who propelled him to the head of the country, and he won the second round of the elections with an overwhelming score: 73 % of the votes. 

Putin comes from a modest family: his father was a soldier in the Soviet Navy and later he worked for NKVD. His paternal grandfather was the cook of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. By the fifth grade, he was one of the few pupils in his class of 45 children who had not been accepted into the pioneers' organization because of his unruly conduct. Putin's childhood was full of hardships, which turned the introverted child into an ambitious man with a strong will to impose himself on the others; for this reason he started to learn judo. After his primary school where he was into sports and then high school, he graduated from the International Law Department at the Faculty of Law within the State University of Leningrad. 

After having graduated from university, Putin was recruited by the KGB in various positions until 1985, when he was sent to the German Democratic Republic, where he stayed until 1990. Upon his return to Russia, he had various political positions, remarkable for his intransigence and authority. In August 1999, he was appointed Prime Minister by Boris Yeltsin, the President of Russia, then, on 31st December 1999, when Boris Yeltsin resigned, Putin became the acting President, elected in 2000 by a majority of 52.50% of the votes. He was re-elected in March 2004, continuing to govern in an authoritarian style. 

As the constitution barred Putin from running for a third term, he ran for office with Dmitry Medvedev in 2008, he became the prime minister and continued the political dominance. In the next elections in 2012, against Medvedev again, Putin won the third presidential term with 63.6% of the votes, despite the widespread accusations of voting arrangements and criticism made by the international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe for procedural irregularities.

FAMILY LIFE

At the age of 30, Putin married Ludmila Skrebneva, a philology graduate who worked as a flight attendant and then as a foreign language teacher. In 2013, after 30 years of marriage, he divorced the woman with whom he has two daughters. It seems that Putin's family has been a necessary accessory to his political career. Putin's family has never appeared reunited in public. In an interview, Putin's ex-wife said that living with him was hell, taking into consideration that she felt like a prisoner. A documentary made by the German television ZDF based on documents from foreign intelligence services, revealed scandalous details about Putin's personal life, as he was described during his stay in Germany as a heavy drinker, he regularly hit his ex-wife. Putin also "took care" of his daughters' education, entrusting this task to Ludmila and giving instructions given to the officials. (There is an entire department in the Kremlin that deals with this area of ​​his life). The two girls never went to school, they took classes at home with famous professors, and later they were enrolled in the University under false names, neither of them had ever been seen in the student campus. The press has attributed various relationships to Vladimir Putin, affairs with the former spy Anna Chapman, or the former housekeeper Svetlana Krivonogikh (now a millionaire). He was allegedly married to the former gymnast Alina Kabaieva, with whom it was speculated that he also had children. But Vladimir Putin has consistently refused to talk about his personal life, and the Kremlin has categorically denied such rumors. Nevertheless, we clearly see similarities with the family lives of Russian tsars.

Volodymyr Zelensky is married to Olena. Although they had known each other since high school and had several mutual friends, the two became closer when they started college. Since 2003 they have been the parents of two children: Oleksandra, born in 2004 and Kyrylo, born in 2013. Olena Zelenska has a degree in civil engineering and architecture, but like Zelensky she changed her job, building a career as a screenwriter and writer with her husband. Unlike the Russian presidential family, the Zelensky family has always been in the public eye, although Olena did not get involved in her husband's political activities until the outbreak of the war, but she supported him. As the first lady of Ukraine, she set out to reform nutrition in Ukrainian schools, but also to promote the country's language internationally. In 2019, she was included by Focus in Top 100 of the most influential people in Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky is seen as a convinced family man, he publicly stated: "I believe that one of the bravest actions for any man is the responsibility to his family" - there is full consistence between his beliefs and actions in this regard. After the outbreak of the conflict with Russia, their actions proved the same unity and the same beliefs. Volodymyr did not leave his position and encouraged his people, whereas Olena was involved in a public campaign to prove to the whole world the sufferings and atrocities of the Ukrainian people committed by the Russian army.

LANGUAGE, SPEECH AND ATTITUDES

Putin's language and speech are consistent with the impression he wants to make, as a determined, tough, authoritarian man, as a representative of a great power and with the message of defending and promoting national traditions and values ​​in front of the ideological and military attempts made by the Western countries to subdue them, to impose their own values ​​on some states in the ex-Soviet space and to isolate Russia more and more. Putin has to convince his interlocutors, including those who disagree with him, and that is why his language is not simple and direct, but euphemistic: attacking a foreign country is not an invasion, it is not an unjust war, it is just "a special military operation" and "a mission to release Ukraine". Ukraine is not a sovereign and independent state but "our historical territory", the democratically elected leaders of Ukraine are "neo-Nazis" whereas the Russian soldiers who steal from shops, break ATMs, destroy hospitals and kill civilians, are "true heroes".

In Putin's language, there are often slang expressions, even translators who cover vulgar expressions by a literary translation, specify high-level official speeches, which confuses the language of a dignitary. The use of such expressions, specific to teenage gangs and especially to the Russian mafia, denotes excessive pride, disrespect for the interlocutors and serious lack of character and attitude. He kept the Queen of England waiting for him for a few hours; he kept Angela Merkel waiting for a few hours, and he kept his ministers waiting for hours before a meeting. There is a significant sequence broadcast worldwide by television, in which Putin humiliated the head of Russian espionage, Sergei Nariskin, in a meeting of the Russian Security Council where he announced that he officially recognized the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions Donetsk and Lugansk.

As things rush and do not go in the direction he wants, Putin seems tense, nervous, insolent, out of control, in an increasingly threatening speech; his non-verbal language reinforces this image.

Zelensky's language is in line with his mission as "a servant of the people." The actor Zelensky does not act, he is not a cabotin. He left the stage and settled in the chair of the president but did not want to adopt the protocol and diplomatic language; he knows that he has no political experience but it matters less. As long as he tells the truth, the way in which he transmits it is less important. In an interview during the election campaign, he said that people identified themselves with him because he was open, that he could be hurt and that he did not hide his emotions in front of the cameras. He acknowledged from the beginning that he had no experience and he promised to be honest. During the election campaign, Zelensky came up with an unconventional speech, with simple problems that affected every citizen, with great openness to young people and to areas not covered by the official rhetoric. This speech "caught" the attention of the people who voted for him in a large majority. Zelensky uses his communication skills in a very effective way: he posts videos and pictures where he talks about what happens in Ukraine. His speech, characterized by logic and precision, sometimes with pathetic accents, "goes through the glass", mobilizes, excites, arouses applauses in the House of Commons or in the European Parliament. When addressing the Europeans, although he has a written speech, Zelensky does not use it, he looks straight at the screen, thus emphasizing the impression of determination, ambition and patriotism. The actor Zelinsky about whom Putin claimed he did not have the skills to lead a state, proved otherwise and turned into a true war leader, who stood out as a very good communicator in times of crisis. He sent messages every day, interacted daily and mobilized his citizens. The war in Ukraine is a war of weapons and a war of communication strategies, and it has been proven that authenticity and closeness to people always win. By his sincere, clear, emotional and mobilizing speech, Zelensky changed the paradigm of communication within leadership.

"DENAZIFICATION" AND "DEMILITARIZATION"

We will not be able to understand Putin without taking into account his past, the environment where he had lived. An admirable portrait of him is made by Gabriel Liiceanu: a resentful KGB man who behaves like the mafia "godfather" in the novel of Mario Puzzo, “a frustrated man brought up in the Bronx District of St. Petersburg, who had been hit by the punks in the neighbourhood because he was short, which activated in him an enormous potential of resentment and wish for revenge and which, built on the model of force ratio as being everything, in these gangs. In these gangs there is only the cult of power: who dictates, who is the big boss, who is the Godfather, is the one who humiliates and does not let himself be humiliated". Putin's problem, like a trained KGB man, is that he is the portrait of “a predator who has all the ordinary instincts and the values ​​of antimorality". 

Specialists believe that Vladimir Putin is affected by the Hybris syndrome. The term comes from the Greek language, where "hybris" means pride, lack of measure and wish for revenge. This syndrome (attributed to Stalin and Lenin) is a narcissistic disorder characterized by high self-confidence, a highly developed sense of manipulation and a feeling of unlimited power. This symptom, specific to dictators, has consequences at the decision-making level: Putin knowingly ignores the rules, common sense, costs and consequences. Those who suffer from Hybris lose touch with reality, lose their use of reason, consider themselves invincible, infallible and invulnerable. This has been noticed not only by doctors. When Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the US President Barack Obama that Putin "lost all contact with reality (...) He is in another world." These people want to impose on the world around them (by any means) their world that they consider the best, even if it is anachronistic and illogical. The engrams in the minds of these people are so profound that they elude reality and logic. As they realize this contradiction, they build their own logic and morality that they claim to be the only true one. They are the holders of the truth, they are the good ones and everyone else is evil and irrational. Who are the others? All those who do not think like them: class enemies, imperialists, militarists and neo-Nazis. Their manipulative action is obvious. In the logical scaffolding that they build, the meaning of some terms is distorted for the purpose of justification.

According to the Explanatory Dictionary, Nazism is "a deeply anti-human political doctrine of German fascism founded by Hitler, who, claiming the superiority of the Aryan race, whose "pure" representative would be the German people, tried to justify violence, racism, genocide, wars of conquest. So Putin says: "The Ukrainian neo-Nazis are committing a real genocide against the Russians in Donbas, Lugansk and throughout Ukraine", although, in his words, "the Ukrainians and the Russians are the same people". But Putin - with its excesses made in some states by the imperialist policy of Russia - makes confusion between Nationalism and Fascism. "Fascists" may also live in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. No wonder Romanians are also considered "fascists". But Putin believes that the situation has worsened in Ukraine, Fascism has become Nazism, the Russians are being racially persecuted. Putin's accusations mainly targeted the Azov Regiment or Battalion (a far-right paramilitary unit founded in 2014 and later integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine, which displayed Nazi symbols and slogans). Later, Putin's accusations extended to the entire Ukrainian leadership that he considered Neo-Nazi. The existence of this organization is undeniable, but its followers represent a minority. The American newspaper USA Today considers that the far right extreme attracts only 2% of the votes of the Ukrainian voters, and that "in comparison to other countries in the Eastern Europe and even in the Western Europe, the problem of the Nazism in Ukraine is a marginal one". USA Today also writes "The marginal presence of Azov Regiment does not justify the Russian invasion and the alleged denazification". In many European states there are far-right parties with leaders whose speeches contain themes of the fascist German ideology.

"QUI SE SCUSE, S'ACCUSE" OR IN THE LANGUAGE OF PUTIN "WHO SAYS, THAT IS" 

In Russia the situation is a little different: the policy of the Russian countries, then continued by Stalin, has become the governmental policy. Only here do fascist tendencies evolve into Nazism because they openly assert the superiority of the Slavs who would have their own ideology, with ethnic bases, totally opposed to the Western liberalism. The neo-Nazism mentioned by Putin is a broader concept that crosses the boundaries of ultra-nationalism. Theoretically, this doctrine accepted by Putin was founded by Alexander Dughin who reinterprets, reverses and adapts the theories of the German model to the realities of Russia by replacing "the living space" necessary to the Aryans with the "Eurasian space" necessary to the Slavs. The Eurasian Union would be the equivalent of the European Union, whereas the Eurasian civilization would oppose the Atlantic civilization (specific to the Western liberalism) which, according to Dughin, must be destroyed. Similarly to Nazism, Dughen's doctrine focuses on the action, which is in line with the Russian historical traditions based on absolutism and militarism. Hitler's ideology of "Mein Kamf", widely promoted after 1933, prepared the military aggression of Germany, just like Dughin's theories in "Eurasian Destiny" (and his other works) were used by Putin to justify the aggression against Transnistria (1991-1992), Chechnya (1994-1996), Georgia (2008), Nagorno-Karabakh region (2021) or Ukraine. The ultra-nationalist deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky anticipated the occupation of Ukraine ("Ukraine should become part of the Russian Federation"), whereas Dughin said it unequivocally in 2008: "Our troops will occupy Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, the whole country and probably even Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which is part of Russia anyway, historically speaking".

For Putin, "denazification" meant: to de-Westernize Ukraine, to cleanse the minds of the Ukrainian "brothers" from the harmful influences of the West, to bring them back to the ideology of their native country. The concept of "denazification" was used by Stalin: after the victory in Stalingrad, the prisoners taken by the Russians were interned in camps and "denazified". Some of these prisoners were Romanian soldiers who (among others) were taught courses in the Romanian history rewritten by the ideologues of the Red Army. The procedure was later applied in all the countries influenced by Moscow; let us remember that many of us learned the history of Romania from Roller's textbooks. Anatol Taranu, the former ambassador of the Republic of Moldova in Russia, considered that the fight of the Ukrainians to get rid of the Russian influence, which culminated with the Euromaidan, was "a real democratic revolution". "But Russia did not accept this revolution of the Ukrainians and tried to stop it. It can be said that what is happening now in Ukraine is a continuation of what happened in Maidan. Putin is trying to stop, once again, the revolution of national liberation of the Ukrainians, with the power of the armed forces. 

However, by the term "denazification" of Ukraine, Putin currently understands the total change of the political regime in this country. The fights did not end, but the process began: the mayor of the Ukrainian town of Melitopol was replaced by a pro-Russian mayor, all the colleges were forced to reopen and to teach in Russian, whereas the new mayor urged the residents not to oppose the Russian occupation so that life can return to "normal." This is certainly the Russian normal, already established in Crimea where "it is estimated that 30,000 Crimean Tatars fled the peninsula since 2014. Some of those who remained faced harsh repression from the Russian authorities who banned the main representative body of the Tartars as well as some religious groups. About 80 Tartars were convicted and 15 activists disappeared".

Population transfers were also included in the arsenal of the "denazification" methods. Let us remember the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, a large-scale operation coordinated in 1944 by Lavrent Beria, the NKVD chief, on behalf of Stalin, the deportations of the Moldovans and of the ethnic Germans from Romania to the Asian part of the Soviet Union or to Siberia; instead of them the Russians were brought there. The process continues even today in a more refined form; the mass naturalization of the populations in the occupied territories. In 2019, by a Presidential Decree, Putin offered Russian citizenship and Russian passports (by a fast procedure) to residents of South Ossetia, Transnistria and the occupied regions of Ukraine.

In the view of the Russian regime and propaganda, everything that comes from the West means Nazism and nowadays democracies are equivalent to Nazism; therefore “the denazification process" must be applied to other former communist states. A project on "the denazification" of Poland, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, was submitted to the Russian State Duma. Putin declares that Russia feels threatened by the neighboring countries (?!). Doesn't such a project pose a threat to the North Atlantic Alliance, given that four of the enumerated countries are members of NATO and of the European Union?

Another objective set by Putin to the army is "to demilitarize" Ukraine. Immediately after the beginning of the Russian offensive, Veaceslav Volodin, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, said that Moscow pursued "the complete demilitarization" of Ukraine and he urged the Ukrainians to lay down their arms and not to participate in any mobilization. Therefore, "demilitarization" meant the disarmament and abolishment of the Ukrainian army and the transformation of Ukraine into a gubernyia. Trying to explain the demilitarization of Ukraine, Dmitry Pesckov, the spokesman of Kremlin, said that it was "neutralizing its military potential that has recently grown significantly." A powerful Ukraine, in Putin's vision, is a threat to the internal democracy, but also to Russia.

"Demilitarization" and "denazification". The combination of the two terms is not by chance: Putin makes a (deliberate) logical error here; the military regimes have dictatorial tendencies, Ukraine's leaders are called "fascists" and "anti-democrats." In the virtue of this reasoning, a country with a powerful army is an anti-democratic country where the army is an instrument to promote ultra-nationalism and to oppress the minorities and of other people. According to the same reasoning, would the United States and Russia be anti-democratic countries? “No”, says Putin, because the Russian army has a high ideological level and a noble purpose (to free the regions Dombas and Lugansk and then all of Ukraine by the fascists who lead them and who oppress the Russian minority), as opposed to the US imperialist army that was sent to Vietnam and Iraq to subjugate those peoples and not to overthrow the existing dictatorial regimes that oppressed their own. The Ukrainian "fascists" ignore the Russian axiom according to which "the Russians and the Ukrainians are the same people" and should be punished for it. There are two tendencies in the Ukrainian society that made Putin order the invasion: the democratization of the social life and the request to join the EU and NATO. The reasoning is simple: "the order" (the geopolitical one) must be restored by removing the "neo-Nazis" from leading Ukraine and by abolishing the national army (trained and equipped by NATO) that threatens the Russian Federation. But NATO is a defensive alliance, and the pseudo-argument invoked by Putin that "Russia feels threatened by the neighbouring countries" and therefore needs "security guarantees" "has been perfectly ridiculed by Blinken, the US Secretary of State, by comparing the fox that attacks the henhouse, saying that it felt threatened by the hens”.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was considered "the sick Europe", but today this label can be put on Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia did not evolve, it was unable to keep up with the West, and then, after the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, it felt awkward and inferior in a unipolar world dominated by the United States as the governing body of NATO. The Russian propaganda fully fueled this feeling of collective frustration. Therefore, it is not surprising that for the future leader of Russia, the former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, the Soviet Union was "the Great Russia" whereas the disintegration of the USSR was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the last century". When Putin came to the power, he displayed an apparent democratic openness and decided to revive Russia's former greatness by cooperating with the Western states commercially (especially by the sale of the nature reserves), increasing its military capabilities, seeking to attract the former Soviet republics to "state unions" by starting an intense ideologization campaign. On this last plan, he used the myth of the Great War for the Defence of the Motherland and the strong Orthodox tradition, by gradually inoculating the idea that the attack against the USSR by Nazi Germany was, in fact, a Western attack against Russia.

Therefore, everything that comes from the West means Nazism, and the Western democracies export their Nazi ideology and even want to impose it to Russia by means of NATO. The fascist "hydra" threatens the "holy" Russia by means of NATO that also extends into Russia's "living space", trying to destroy the Eurasian civilization. Therefore, "the intruder" must be eliminated. Russia, Putin personally, has the historic mission to defend - by any means - the traditional values ​​of the Slavs. "Greater Russia" cannot accept a world with only one expansionist pole of power.

MULTIPOLARITY AND INFLUENCE SPHERES 

The role of NATO (led by America - "the land of absolute evil" in Dughin's view) has become even more harmful in a world that is no longer even bipolar. "NATO is a rudimentary entity, a continuation of bipolarity. I think NATO should be destroyed and stop existing in a multipolar world" saod Alekxandr Dughin. 

Russia has nothing to do with NATO, as long as this organization limits its actions in the Americas. Russia, as a regional power (in decline), unable to compete with the West, relying on the global economic realities, looked for allies, preaching the idea of ​​a multipolar world. Putin himself said at the  Security Conference in Munich in 2007: "I consider that the unipolar model is not only inacceptable but it is impossible in today's world". "The combined GDP, measured at the parity of the purchasing power, of countries such as India and China is already higher than the GDP of the United States. A similar calculation of the GDP of BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) exceeds the cumulated GDP of the EU. And, according to experts, this gap will do nothing but increase in the future. There is no doubt that the economic potential of the new centers of global economic growth will inevitably be turned into political influence and will strengthen multipolarity". After the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, when Russia became increasingly isolated internationally, the need for allies became more and more pressing for Putin's regime. Thus, in the midst of the war, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian  Minister of Foreign Affairs, is in Beijing and in New Delhi, offering trade facilities to these countries in exchange for the acceptation and approval of Russia's actions.

"KARAGANOV DOCTRINE" and "DIRECTED DEMOCRACY" 

However, NATO is only a potential threat; Russia needed a more plausible pretext to attack the former Soviet countries, so the Russian propaganda offered it. Sergei Karaganov, the chairman of the Council for the Foreign Policy and Defence in Moscow, developed the theoretical concept of the Russian interventionism. The doctrine with his name stipulates that, after 1991, Russia's foreign policy to its neighbours had to have as an objective the protection of ethnic Russians in those countries, even at the cost of military interventions. The doctrine was completed by Putin and implemented immediately: the territorial units inhabited mostly by ethnic Russians, even if they were on the territory of other states, did not need the approval of the central authorities to express their options and self-determination. The military units were not withdrawn from Transnistrian, although Russia had promised to do it. Another ideologue, Vladislav Surkov, developed guidelines to implement Karaganov's ideas. His ideas on "the vertical line of the power" or "the directed democracy" outline the procedures to be followed in order to have regional elections in the occupied territories, following the model of the internal ones, which could easily result in the victory of the parties favourable to power.

For some people, a unipolar world would be better because it would eliminate possible rivalries.  But even a multipolar world would not exclude the return to "the influence spheres" and to "Brezhnev's Doctrine" of "the limited sovereignty", especially in the case of Russia that has a tradition and background in this regard. "Brezhnev's Doctrine" was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia that ended the Prague Spring in 1968. "Karaganov's Doctrine" is currently used to justify the invasion of Ukraine. Both theories reflect the thinking way of the Russian ruling classes and they are expressions of Slavic narcissism. For Putin's Russia, the world today is dominated by several power centers that can determine the orbits on which the states around them gravitate; the relationship of these states with the power center is a vassality one. Such a relationship - obviously anachronistic - continued by the fact that the power in the post-Soviet republics was taken over by corrupted elites, ideologically indoctrinated people, putting their personal interests first, some of them are even convinced that "the light comes from sunrise”. (If we refer to the Republic of Moldova, it is enough to mention the names of Mircea Snegur, Pavel Lucinski, Vladimir Voronin or Igor Dodon). The policy promoted by these people was in contradiction with the people's natural aspirations to freedom, democracy, assertion of sovereignty and national identity. Reformist parties emerged and won the voters on their side; some of these leaders were removed by the people's will; others still exist today. Russian leaders believe that these reformist movements are influenced and fueled by the West, and that they seek to weaken Russia's influence, which has the historical and ecclesiastical right to direct the evolutionary directions of these states. This view is contrary to current principles on international relations between sovereign states with equal rights. Russia cannot get rid of the past, moving from the Tsarist dictatorship to Lenin's dictatorship and, nowadays, to Putin's dictatorship.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's policy focused on two levels: economic (by obtaining money from Western countries and by making them depend on its resources) and military (by irredentist interventions). These repeated interventions had a duble purpose: to create what Putin calls "Novorossia" and to show to the West that Russia is not willing to give up its status as a "suzerain" in relations with the former Soviet republics. After Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria had joined NATO, and Ukraine had openly expressed its intention, Russia was frustrated by the fact that the Western states and America ignored "his legitimate aspirations", so it decided to intervene. By this intervention, Putin "is determined to force Europe to revise the formula of influence spheres in the future, and to obtain for Russia in this process a key vote on the continent's economic and security issues". As for the interpersonal relations, frustration can generate aggressiveness whereas the aggressive behaviour violates social boundaries and can result in the deterioration of the relationships with others. It seems that the phenomenon can extend to the level of the relations between states, especially when the population of a certain state is subject to a massive ideological intoxication! (No wonder that Putin's policy has enough supporters in Russia!) In this case, for the frustrated, it does not matter how legitimate his "aspirations" are, whereas aggressiveness turns into "geopolitical terrorism": "Not only Ukraine is under attack. International law, international order based on norms, democracy and human dignity are also under attack. This is simply geopolitical terrorism." (Chars Michel - speech given in the European Parliament, 1st March 2022)

FROM THE FORCE OF THE RIGHT TO THE RIGHT OF FORCE

International law is turned into regional law, ie. the right of the most powerful in the region. Sovereignty is defined as "the quality or condition of a collectivity, especially of a state, to rule freely, internally and externally, without foreign interference" (source: Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language). But here is how Vladimir Putin conceives the sovereignty of the independent Ukrainian state: "I am convinced that the true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.". We return thus to the feudal right, ie. the right of the suzerain upon his subjects and vassals. Besides, this is also true economically, by the return to the closed natural economy: "restrictions imposed on Russian companies to buy goods from the West, Europe and the USA" is "an impetus to produce these goods in our country".

International law is “a set of rules acknowledged by the states of the world as having a binding character in their mutual relations, but also with international organizations. International law is usually enshrined in agreements between sovereign states and / or it results from such agreements". (European Justice Source). The principles that govern the relations between the states are found in the constitutive documents of International organizations : U.N.O., O.S.C.E, Council of Europe and so on of which those states are members. There are currently 198 member states in the U.N.O. and 27 states are members of the European Union. The most important international organization in the world, the U.N.O was established after World War II on 24th October 1945 by the founding members of the U.N.O. Charter, a document that presents the mission of the organization to ensure "world peace," "respect for human rights," "international cooperation," and "respect for international law". Although the creation of these institutions represents a great progress in regulating the relations between the states, their way of organizing and functioning, the way of adopting decisions does not provide full equality between the member states, which results in issues, especially in crisis situations. Thus, important decisions such as international peace and security, the admission of new members and the budget of U.N.O. are approved by a majority of two-thirds (although efforts have been made in recent years to make decisions rather by consensus) and there is a right of veto for the 5 permanent members of the U.N.O. Security Council (China, Great Britain, France, Russia, the United States of America), often used in an abusive way to influence decisions in the direction of personal interests. Despite the rule which provides that a member of the Security Council to abstain from voting when a decision concerning him/her directly has to be made, it does not happen. If it is considered that an occurred situation would endanger international peace and security, the Council can make certain recommendations; these recommendations are not binding on the U.N.O. members, but they are indicators of general international opinions and represent the moral authority of the community of nations. 

Is it possible to ask Russia to abide by certain moral norms having in view that it has not even complied with its legal obligations regarding the sovereignty and independence of some states, obligations undertaken when signing international treaties? Let us mention only the provisions of the Budapest Treaty signed on 5th December 1994 between Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain and Russia, by which the signatory countries undertook, in exchange for Ukraine's renunciation to Soviet nuclear weapons on its territory, to respect the sovereignty independence and the existing borders of Ukraine. After 20 years, Russia occupied Crimea, and recently a devastating war started against Ukraine, the consequences of which cannot be foreseen, yet. By this war, Vladimir Putin turned the world from the force of the right to the right of the force." 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE INVASION. PERSPECTIVES.

In these conditions, and especially after the atrocities committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, the questions arise: what credibility does Russia have internationally? Which of the Western leaders still wants Vladimir Putin as an interlocutor? The image that Putin struggled to build and present to the world (by posts where he was playing hockey, doing judo, riding a horse with his bare chest, swimming in icy water or flying firefighting planes) was deteriorated. The satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo recently published a cartoon of him, depicting a gorilla urinating on the red button, whereas Joe Biden, the US President, said that Vladimir Putin would become an international pariah. Putin's negative image is getting even worse in comparison with Volodymir Zelensky. "Putin, the one who was riding a horse with his bare chest, is hiding today in his secret bunker whereas Zelensky, the former comedian, risks his life in the battle", wrote the famous philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb. We believe that Putin, by his decisions, has also affected the image of his country; Russians are currently seen in the West just like the Arabs were seen after the terrorist attacks on 11th September 2001. 

The International Court of Justice in the Hague, as the main judicial body of the United Nations, ordered Russia to suspend the invasion of Ukraine. Although the Court's decision is binding, the court has no way of enforcing it; Russia announced that it would not comply with this decision. Also, Russia has been expelled from the Council of Europe whereas Russia's flag has been lowered from the pillar in front of the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg. These measures are equivalent to an ostracism, Russia is "officially acknowledged as a part of the barbarian world", writes "The Guardian". The reproach of the international community to Russia is obvious; the disapproval by which the society condemns those who do not respect the rules of the game is not enough; in the absence of coercive measures, they may continue to defy the opinion of the majority. This is why it is necessary to rethink the operating principles of international bodies, namely identifying procedures that provide full equality between states in the decision-making process and establishing repercussions for those who deliberately violate the unanimously accepted norms. 

The war that broke out by Russia against Ukraine will have the effect of amplifying the process of asserting Ukraine's national identity. Volodymyr Zelensky has great credit for this. The Ukrainians began to assert this identity especially after the disintegration of the USSR, but the process was much more present among the younger generation, and in the west (westernized) part than in the east (pro-Russian). The Russian invasion, with the declared goal of Russification and "denazification" = de-Westernization of Ukraine, did just the opposite: asserting a new national identity focused on the European democratic values ​​and even more than that, it amplified hostility to Russia.

Furthermore, the events in Ukraine made Russia's neighbouring countries concerned: "Russia is not the neighbour we thought" said Sanna Marin, Finland's prime minister (source: Mediafax.ro on 11.04.2022). Finland and Sweden renounced neutrality and expectation, they now declared themselves in favour of joining NATO. The "neutral" Switzerland joined the European Union and adopted sanctions against Russian citizens involved in the invasion of Ukraine by freezing their assets. Also, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova signed applications to join the European Union. Economically, the war and the sanctions against Russia severely affected the world trade, whereas the rise in the oil and gas prices resulted in higher prices for all the products whereas the European states intensified their efforts to seek alternatives to the Russian energy. A possible European recession may affect even Romania where a lower economic growth is expected. Russia's geographical location and the potential threats increase the reluctance of foreign investors to Romania, whereas Russia's occupation of Snake Island makes it almost impossible to exploit the gas reserves of the Black Sea.

The applied sanctions start to show their effect in Russia and around the world: these sanctions are against the Russian Federation and the Russian oligarchs. The sanctions applied to the oligarchs should not be seen as applied to individuals because they are of Russian nationality but they refer to the latter because of their connections to the Moscow regime. A few hours after launching the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin summoned to the Kremlin 37 of the most important businessmen in Russia, including at least 12 billionaires. According to the Atlantic Council, the U.S. Center for Political Studies, "the Russians allegedly hid about a trillion dollars abroad, i.e. one thousand billion dollars of what is called "dark money" and "this money can be used and directed by the Kremlin for espionage, terrorism, industrial espionage, bribery, political manipulation, misinformation and many other military purposes".

The Russian invasion of Ukraine determined the member states of NATO, including Romania, to increase military expenses. Germany announced an increase in the military expenses to more than 2% of the GDP and the release of 100 billion euros to modernize its defence. A new arms race is looming.

Moreover, due to Russia's aggressive policy, the relations between NATO and the European Union, which are in "brain death" (according to Macron's expression), have greatly improved, the two organizations coordinated their efforts to a partnership based on equality and complementarity.

The atrocities committed by the Russian soldiers horrified the free world and make us wonder about the training and education of recruits in Russia. It can be said that the democratization degree of a country's army is a reflex of the democratization degree of the civil society. In the Russian society there is a gap between generations, between the intellectual blanket and the rest of the society, but the same thing is seen in the Russian army. Putin is surrounded by generals and senior officers who were trained and active in the Soviet army, with a special focus on the ideological training of fighters, focusing on the heroism of Russian soldiers in "the Great War for the Defence of the Motherland" and in the hatred of the enemy who is now the Western society, NATO, and all those who join the ideas of the enemy. This ideology excludes ethics: the purpose excuses the means. For Putin, the invasion of Ukraine has a "noble" purpose, and those who make it are "heroes." After 1991 many of the former component states of the U.S.S.R., including Romania, initiated reforms to break forever the connections with the communist dictatorial military system. There were no such reforms in the Russian army; the army of the Russian Federation is the successor to the Soviet army.

The laws of war that govern the conduct of the parties in the war, both nationally and internationally, are enforced by the Russians in Ukraine under the Roman law, which gives to the victor the right to plunder the enemy's property ("praeda bellica"), to humiliate survivors and to kill in case of need ("iure caesus"). There are no differences between the Soviet soldier who had come to Romania as "a rescuer" in 1944 satirized by Constantin Tanase in his sketches ("davai ceas, davai palton") and the Russian soldier sent by Putin to free Ukraine from "the Nazis", who steals everything he finds, rapes women, humiliates the fighters in the Ukrainian army by cutting their hair off, confiscates and destroys books on the Ukrainian culture, who "executed" with a bullet in the head the monument dedicated to the Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko, who kidnaps children or commits murders on civilians.

The Republic of Moldova is watching concerned the events in Ukraine. There is a joke in the Republic of Moldova: A question on Yerevan Radio: "Who does Russia decide with?" And the answer: “With whoever it wants". The Republic of Moldova is a small country, with limited possibilities and does not have the resilience ability of Ukraine. There are only 60 km between Odessa and the separatist Transnistria. If Odessa falls, the Russians will be welcome with open arms in Transnistria and it is difficult to assume that they will stop here and not reach the Prut River, prospects that terrify most Moldovans who lived the experience of the Russian occupation. They consider that the decision to reunite with Romania is the only possibility to take refuge from the Russian aggression. "Having in view that this scenario is unlikely, we cling to "the constitutional neutrality", in the hope that the white flag we will wave in front of the aggressor will calm his bloodlust", said the writer Vitalie Ciobanu.

For the time being, the Republic of Moldova submitted on 4th March 2022 the application to join the European Union, just like Ukraine and Georgia. But in Moldova, a part of the population is pro-Russian. Alexander Kalinin, the leader of the Party of Regions - a pro-Russian political party - assured Putin that the Moldovan citizens support "the special operation" on the Ukrainian territory and invited him to accomplish it. Russian propaganda, also supported by political parties, makes the Moldovan voters confused. An opinion poll made in March showed that the pro-Eastern parties would collect about 30% of the vote together, which raises fears about the upcoming elections.

No one can be indifferent to what is happening today in Ukraine, even if it does not directly affect him, because every person has a moral conscience that imposes a certain conduct on their relations with their fellows. Moral conscience is the subjective principle of the moral order. Lenin's regime in Russia and later the communist propaganda profoundly altered his moral conscience. Putin's continued call for "Russian Orthodoxy" and the attitude of Patriarch Kirill (also a former KGB officer) in support of the war against Ukraine can be considered manifestations of Pharisaism. "The atrocities, cynicism and lies that accompany Russia's aggression against Ukraine prove ... that far from being extinct, the communist barbarism has been transformed into an even more perverse barbarism. Fascism, including its most virulent version, Nazism, was condemned and became rare and inactive. Communism, including its most virulent version, Sovietism, has not been condemned, it is still active, intimidating and disturbing the minds of hundreds of millions of people. It would be, on our part, "Westerners", foolish and unforgivable to hide cowardly behind political "caution" and selfish comfort (otherwise illusory!) and to ignore the cries of despair and help coming to us from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia or Armenia, countries whose citizens want only to be like us, namely to share with us the ideals, the lifestyle, the European principles and values.”

                                                                                       Authors,

                                                                                       psychologist Emil Forst and lawyer Gianina Vera Poroșnicu