President Obama’s plan to bomb IS forces in Syria doesn’t meet with Russia’s approval.
The cynics and Russophobes among you might suggest that Russia feels that way because Syria’s president Assad is a client of long standing, and he’ll be upset to see Nato bombers diving on his territory.
If that’s how you feel, you’re grossly wrong. Russia opposes the bombing not out of narrow parochial considerations but because of her disinterested commitment to international law.
Here’s the statement issued to that effect by the Russian Foreign Ministry: “In the absence of an appropriate decision of the U.N. Security Council, such a step would become an act of aggression, a crude violation of the norms of international law.”
I for one am happy to see that Russia holds international law, and the UN as its guardian, in such high esteem. Among other things this reinforces the view gaining momentum in some conservative circles that Russia is a truly Christian nation.
For, after that organisation’s March vote on the annexation of Crimea, it takes an act of Christian forgiveness to defer to the UN as the ultimate authority on such matters, one whose rulings carry the moral weight of sheer goodness.
A lesser country than Russia would bear a grudge, for the UN General Assembly condemned the annexation, by 100 to 11, with the rest abstaining. Apart from the former Soviet republics located a few hours from Russia by tank, her 11 allies included Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
A great nation would hate to find itself in such company, but Russia displays not only Christian forgiveness but also Christian humility. Didn’t the book Col. Putin cherishes say “…whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also”?
Now that the good colonel has finally learned that Orthodox Christians cross themselves right to left, not left to right, as they do in those Italian films, he won’t deviate from the path of godly rectitude.
That’s what makes Russia’s pronouncements on international law so valuable. In our civilisation all law, even if ostensibly secular, has Christian antecedents. So who better than a newly pious KGB colonel to pass such judgement?
At least that’s what I think. Alas, not everyone is guided by the light emanating from the abridged Russian translation of the Bible. Some heathen secularists insist that anyone delivering himself of legal opinion must possess earthly qualifications.
How can a country acquire them? Obviously she can’t go to law school and pass the bar exam in order to qualify. Her legal credentials can only be verified by looking at how she’s rated by various international agencies.
In search of validation I looked at such ratings – only to find confirmation for the feeling deep-seated in the breast of most Russians: the whole world is against them. All those rating agencies collude to cast Russia in a bad light.
Judge for yourself. In the rule-of-law category Russia came in at Number 92, out of 97 countries rated. That’s one rung below Belarus but – a glorious achievement! – one above Nicaragua.
In terms of upholding fundamental rights, Russia’s rating was even higher: 82, one behind the UAE, where you can go to jail for a little hanky-panky outside marriage. One is prepared to rise and salute, but then one’s ardour is doused by the cold water of some other ratings.
Russia ranks a derisory 148th out of 179 on freedom of the press, which is widely regarded as a guarantor of legality. The Russophobes jeer, for that rating places Putin’s Russia below Bangladesh, Cambodia and Burundi.
Those haters of Russia refuse to look on the positive side: Putin’s bailiwick is still above, if not by much, Iraq and Gambia. If that’s not the crowning achievement of Putin’s reign, I don’t know what is.
Oh yes, I do. Russia, I’ll have you know, didn’t drop any lower than Number 127 on the corruption rating, where she finds herself in a nine-way tie with such bastions of legality as Pakistan and, again, Gambia.
Those Russophobes I mentioned earlier smirk and hiss “judge them by the company they keep”. They ignore the indisputable fact of the anti-Russian collusion hatched in the dark cellars of the CIA, MI6, EU, UN and quite possibly FIFA.
Since Russia has neither any intention nor any obvious way of changing her company, she has announced plans to change the judges. She will create her own ratings agency, for the time being in finance only.
This is a bit like a pupil marking his own school essays, but the idea does have merit. It should be extended to all of those categories where Russia’s sterling performance is ranked so artificially low.
What could be simpler? Russia should announce that henceforth she won’t be judged by the united Russophobes of the world. She will be her own judge, and the preliminary verdict says she’s the most scrupulously legal nation in the world – comfortably leading not just Gambia but also Obama’s own land.
Only then will the rest of the world heed Russia’s legal opinions with the deference they deserve. Meanwhile we quote another prescription from the book Putin probably keeps on his nightstand next to the biography of Felix Dzerzhinsky (whose birthday he doubtless celebrated yesterday):
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.”