Before you denounce Vladmir Putin for his military adventures in Ukraine, you should take a moment to take a look at it from his perspective, and consider the many serious issues which provoked him into action.
These include encroachment by NATO, Russia protecting its historic sphere of influence and the Russian diaspora, and [checks notes] drawings by 13-year-old schoolgirls.
It started with a drawing.
The instructions to the students at School No. 9 in the Russian town of Ephraim, 300 kilometres south of Moscow, were rather simple: illustrate your support for the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.
But Masha Moskaleva, 13, did not follow the teacher’s orders.
Her drawing depicted Russian missiles headed toward a mother and child standing next to a flag bearing the words, “Glory to Ukraine.”
The explosive fallout has sent a cold chill through the entire country.
Russians who are opposed to their country’s invasion of Ukraine have been contending for the last year with military censorship laws under which they risk stiff fines or jail time for repeat offences.
Many have fled the country. Countless others have gone silent.
But Masha and her father, Alexei Moskalev, who is missing after escaping house arrest just hours before being sentenced to two years in prison for his anti-war social media posts, have suffered a harsher fate than most.
Moskalev was repeatedly arrested, jailed and tortured, and has since gone into hiding.
He’s the lucky one.
Masha Moskaleva remains in an orphanage while waiting for an April 6 court hearing that will decide whether she should remain under the state’s care or whether a family member can be found who is willing to care for her.
This is not a regime which shows confidence in its actions and its guiding ideology.
It’s moments like these that reveal just how insecure and weak - yes, weak - Vladimir Putin really is.
How can I call a nuclear-armed dictator, who is gradually snuffing out whatever freedom of expression, conscience and thought once existed in his country, a weak person? Because someone who brings down the hammer in this fashion against people whose kids drew doubleplusungood pictures is not a person with any actual confidence in his ideas.
That’s how authoritarian leaders have always rolled. Liberal democracy is a system in which people disagree publicly and very little is so sacred it can never be challenged. It is messy and chaotic and disorderly.
But it keeps democratic leaders on their toes. To stay in power they have to learn how to react to changing times and disruptive emergencies. Of course they can and often will try to snuff out emerging social trends - see the recent spate of laws against drag shows - but it’s usually after the horse long ago left the barn.
By contrast, leaders like Putin don’t have to adapt to the public mood because they can ignore it and suppress it.
…for a while, at least. When the people have thoroughly had enough and rise up against their tyrannical government, the dictator inevitably appears legitimately shocked that he’s not as beloved and admired as his propagandists and yes-men insisted.
If he’s lucky he gets a comfortable life in exile. If he’s not lucky, well…
Tyrants live in bubbles. And every bubble pops eventually.
Two things can be true:
There is systemic racism in the American justice system and over-incarceration of African-Americans; and,
There are also some really, really, really stupid people on daytime television.