The Patriot Post® · Russia: A Pariah State and Rightly So

On Wednesday, at a rare special session of the United Nations General Assembly, that corrupt, useless, and self-congratulatory social club finally did something in resounding fashion other than condemn Israel for its Jewishness: It voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that deplores “in the strongest terms” Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is no doubt shaking in his boots.

The resolution, which was approved by 141 members of the 193-member body, demands that Russia immediately stop its war in Ukraine and withdraw all of its troops from Ukrainian territory. At first glance, it seems shocking that so many nations would refuse to sign on to such a modest and righteous resolution. Most of those — 35 in all — were abstainers, though, and they include such malefactors as China, Cuba, and Iran. That Russia has lost these three nasty regimes says something about the unprecedented nature of this atrocity. But the world’s largest democracy, India, also abstained, and this seems a disgrace. So did some other nations that ought to know better than to turn a blind eye to tyrants.

In any case, only four nations were morally bankrupt enough to join Russia in voting against the resolution: the Russian puppet state of Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north and from which Russia has staged much of its invasion; the hermit kingdom of Stalinist North Korea; the Middle Eastern client state of Syria; and the smallish East African country of Eritrea.

So: Russia is now a pariah state, a brutish predator cast out of the community of nations. Two cheers for the otherwise irrelevant UN.

More muscular than this sternly worded memo, though, are the very real sanctions that have been slapped on Putin’s Russia by the Western world. As the Associated Press reports, “Ordinary Russians are feeling the painful effects — from payment systems that won’t operate and problems withdrawing cash to not being able to purchase certain items.”

Here, then, is another war front that Putin must contend with: that of an angry and disillusioned citizenry as it begins to see its standard of living reduced, as it begins to feel the crush of one economic hardship after another. As the AP continues:

Apple announced that it would stop selling its iPhone and other popular products in Russia along with limiting services like Apple Pay as part of a larger corporate backlash to protest the invasion.

Dozens of foreign and international companies have pulled their business out of Russia. Major car brands halted exports of their vehicles; Boeing and Airbus suspended supply of aircraft parts and service to Russian airlines; major Hollywood studios halted their film releases; and the list will likely keep growing.

That’s on top of the United States and other Western nations hitting Russia with sanctions of unprecedented breadth and severity. They have thrown major Russian banks off the SWIFT international payment system, limited high tech exports to Russia and severely restricted Moscow’s use of its foreign currency reserves.

Food prices have already begun to soar in Russia, and Russian realists warn that the worst is yet to come. Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 with relative impunity, but this time is clearly different. “We’re facing growing prices, mass layoffs, delays in payment of benefits or pensions,” said opposition politician Yulia Galyamina in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “Shortages of medicines and medical equipment. Aging and impoverished car and aircraft fleet. … We’ll be remembering the 1990s as hardly the worst time. But I have only one question: for what?”

Indeed, for what? That’s the question that will continue to gnaw at everyday Russians in the days, weeks, and months ahead.