STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Putin Reaches Out to Obama for Meeting at the UN
Let’s Accept, Shake his Hand and Act with Sincerity!

For over a year, I have borne witness to the devastating effects that Obama’s White House sanctions has had on the Russian economy. I have written countless blogs informing Putin and the Russians [who do read these blogs] that their future looks dim if nothing is done about their imploding economy.  I have no greater wisdom than countless members of our Intelligence Community who have enacted these sanctions and initiated a devastating economic warfare against the ruble and Russia’s bond rating. If concession to pressure appears as victory, so let it be.

Yet I must warn those who are now gloating, that the Russians are a formidable people who can and will sustain whatever necessary pains and tribulations in order to maintain their national pride. I understand that all too well. When I was involved in the successful regime change in the Soviet Union during the Reagan/Bush Sr Administrations, I had strongly cautioned my esteemed colleagues in both the IC and WH that what we had done was to take down a political façade that had tempered the Russian soul for over half-a-century. We did not diminished or in any way defeat the strong Russian character. Before I left the Bush Sr Administration, I cautioned against smugness and complacency or any form of unintended humiliation.

In the past few years Putin, rightfully or wrongfully, attempted to recreate a faux stance where he tried to tempt the ability of our POTUS in conjunction with our IC/Military Forces, to provoke us into a position of subservience. Strategically, Putin spread his military forces over an arc of crisis that backfired against his initial desires to assert himself as a predominate actor in world affairs. Putin found himself caught in his own spider web of insufficient funds and a bankrupt economy. Whether we, Americans, consider this tactical outcome a ‘success’ is at best questionable, if not almost irrelevant to the future of our relations with Russia.

Like most leaders who have witnessed the benign wrath of an America who will not tolerate unwarranted incursions or unnecessary provocations, it is time for POTUS to accept the outreached hand and shake it. Let us not seek glory nor vengeance in the action that Putin has initiated with his gesture of peace. Let us make certain that we can continue as two formidable partners in a wide spectrum of activities including the reasonable resolution of the civil war in Syria as well as a host of other salient issues.

Let me remind my Republican colleagues that as of this week, POTUS has welcomed President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, and curried the interest of Putin to meet POTUS at the UN. That is quite admirable in the field of US National Security interests. There are no accidents nor coincidences in world affairs.

The confluence of these three major world actors to appear at one time in the USA is a testimony to the POTUS and his Foreign Policy team. As such, it should be treated with respect for all parties concerned; as well as a pragmatic approach to all problems that may confront us and our guests.

Let me end this blog with a quote from one of my favorite Russian Novelists, Nikolai Gogol, “Dead Souls”:

“A word aptly uttered or written cannot be cut away by an axe.”

Ainsi soit-il! So be it!