TRIVIAL ENEMIES ARE A FUNCTION OF THE TIMES:

In any case, though portrayed as a powerful leader, Putin cannot be said to be following Russia's ultimate strongman, Stalin, in any meaningful respect. Under Stalin, enthusiastic self-sacrifice and scientific rationality were promoted as ideals. Industrial development and military victories, though coming at an intolerable human cost, were real. The regime depended on show trials and gulag labor, and used unprecedented violence to consolidate the power of dogmatic, ascetic bureaucrats. Corruption was a crime that was punished.

Today, corruption is the norm, and show trials, though still occurring, do not happen on Stalin's industrial scale. Putin and his circle are mainly concerned with survival and enrichment. He fears Ukraine's 2014 uprising as a "revolutionary plague" only because it might erupt in Moscow's own squares. Putin's desire to preempt such an outcome explains the Kremlin's brutal response.

Putin's regime is simply a Russian version of clientelism, with wealth and economic opportunity distributed on the basis of political fealty. The system's crimes have been evident for years, and it is tragic that no international power has been able to punish it. Westerners who think otherwise and have acquiesced in Russia's actions in Ukraine do so for no other reason than their own greed, fear, or self-deception.

Indeed, after sucking resources and money from Russia and its citizens, Putin and his obedient oligarchs have been allowed to invest their ill-gotten gains in European and US banks and real estate, paying fat fees that have fueled profit growth for Western firms.

The West's gain, however, continues to cause enormous discomfort for ordinary Russians. After almost a quarter-century of so-called "liberal" economic policy, everything from imported goods to bank mortgages are still far more expensive than in the West. And recent sanctions have only worsened conditions.

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