Ukraine is Putin’s Afghanistan — Adam Michnik

The fact that Ukraine’s army has stopped the Russian invasion is Russia’s second instance of defeat since the USSR was “kicked in the teeth” in Afghanistan, says Adam Michnik, political activist, dissident, and editor-in-chief of Poland’s largest newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, informs UaPost with reference to news agencies.

“Ukraine has stopped Putin’s advance. This is the second such instance. The USSR had come to Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but it was kicked in the teeth in Afghanistan. Now the Russians have been defeated again in Ukraine. Ukraine is their second Afghanistan,” he said.

According to Michnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has caught himself in his own trap. His first error was to force Viktor Yanukovych to reject the EU Association Agreement. His second was to think that Ukrainians could be broken by force. His third was to assume that NATO and the EU would not react too strongly to local conflicts and that he could seize eastern Ukraine as easily as Crimea.

“This turned out not to be the case. After the Olympics, when Yanukovych was still president of Ukraine, Putin held all the cards. Now he is an isolated politician. Everyone knows he is a liar and no one believes anything he says. The only thing the Western politicians fear is his unpredictability,” he said.

Michnik believes Russia’s only hope lies in the establishment of democracy in Ukraine. This is why the West must help Ukraine to build such a democracy. And this is why the West must allow weapons to be supplied to Ukraine.

“Because he (Putin) only understands the language of force, and he wants to take Ukraine without war. He must be made to understand that he will not take it without war,” Michnik noted.

He described the political regime in the Russian Federation as “rotting authoritarianism.”

“I was wrong when I thought that Putin is a typical Soviet KGB man. In general they are predictable, and Putin is not” he said.