Kasparov

My old homeland, the Soviet Union, is gone, tossed into the proverbial dustbin of history a quarter-century ago. By the end, its only significant export was the toxic ideology of communism, which left it both intellectually and financially bankrupt. Though few care to admit it today, the USSR and communism had their defenders in the free world, many of whom preferred to believe in the utopian fantasies of socialism instead of looking at its disastrous realities. Such is the dangerous power of a big idea.

As a believer in the importance of big ideas myself, I actually sympathize with those misguided dreamers more than I do with the current generation of western cynics and profiteers who defend doing business with the world’s most corrupt and brutal regimes. They are aiding and abetting human rights abuses on a monstrous scale with full knowledge of their actions and the damage they cause.

Despite Vladimir Putin’s best efforts to cobble together a Frankenstein’s monster “USSR Lite” by intimidation and economic extortion of Russia’s neighbors, the only unifying idea this time is money. Russia’s military and nuclear arsenal, while still formidable, are not the vanguard of this offensive. And where Soviet ideology once found its way into the cracks of the western world, Putin has found that cold, hard cash is far more effective in recruiting allies and deterring potential foes.

A western engagement policy of “all carrots, no stick” doesn’t work with dictators like Putin who take the carrots and use the profits to fund repression at home.
Russia’s massive energy reserves and its domination of the pipeline system to Europe—and the hundreds of billions of dollars these assets provide—are the Kremlin’s weapons in this fight for geopolitical influence. This is a relatively recent development because Putin has what his Soviet predecessors never dreamed of: Economic leverage handed to him on a platter by western corporations and leaders eager to make deals. When the Iron Curtain fell, Europe and America rushed to engage the newly free nations. This was the natural and humane thing to do and it worked very well in Eastern Europe, where the new governments and their people very much wanted to reform and to join the modern world.

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