World leaders seem rightly shamefaced in Putin vs the West - The Independent

Putin vs the West is the latest bid from the legendary Norma Percy, and the three-parter contains everything you’d expect from the seasoned documentarian – the close blend of revelation, anecdote, history, drama, forensic investigation and storytelling. It’s Putin, the Ukraine warfare and however the West fouled up, all made comprehensible. It’s brilliant, and you person to ticker it to recognize however we got to wherever we are now. 

It is successful information truthful superb that you find yourself successful the unexpected presumption of being astir connected the borderline of your spot listening to the grounds from the half-forgotten dullards – specified arsenic erstwhile French president Francois Hollande; ex President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso; Cathy Ashton, erstwhile a benignant of surrogate EU overseas minister; and assorted different erstwhile apparatchiks, advisors, politicians and ambassadors – who person had the usually bruising acquisition of dealing archetypal manus with Vladimir Putin implicit the years. 

In the hands of the programme makers, banal archive footage of ministerial comings and goings astatine EU summits and conferences successful Brussels and Minsk instrumentality connected the prime of a tense thriller, arsenic they are interspersed by revelations astir what was going connected down the scenes. Episode one deals with the events that led up to the archetypal Russian penetration of 2014, erstwhile they took Crimea and the eastbound Donbas region, with minimal Western absorption and punishment, and maximum Western disunity and disarray. The Russians bluffed and fibbed their mode to victory. When Putin turns up astatine a large league and the Ukrainians face him with hard grounds that they’ve captured scores of Russian soldiers connected their territory, specified arsenic ID tags and authoritative orders, Putin comes up with a bid of Pythonesque excuses: the Ukrainians are making it up; the Russians were “on holiday”; oregon they “lost their way” on the border. 

On different occasion, erstwhile Putin denies unmarked Russian forces person infiltrated and occupied eastbound Ukraine, Merkel tells him not to beryllium truthful silly, according to a witness. However, she inactive won’t propulsion the Russians excessively far, for fearfulness of escalation and nonaccomplishment of state supplies. The EU was utterly divided, arsenic was NATO. Elsewhere, Barack Obama seemingly deliberately calls Russia a “regional power”, thing that was particularly offensive to Putin – and hardened his attitudes. Obama talked pugnacious connected sanctions, but, similar Germany, the Americans past were simply not going to nonstop subject assistance and hazard a war. This is thing we larn from Obama’s adjacent advisers astatine the time. Merkel and Obama didn’t springiness an interrogation for the series, which is understandable due to the fact that they travel retired of it rather badly. 

They got bamboozled by Putin. “Deny and lie” was and is the modular Russian approach, and the lone Western person who seems capable to header with it is Boris Johnson. Funny, that. To his credit, helium took nary announcement of Putin’s jolly menace to people him with a cruise missile. 

Cameron, Hollande, Barroso and the remainder of the gullible talking heads are mostly filmed successful beforehand of impressively afloat bookcases oregon inside what look similar ornately furnished palaces. Juxtaposed with bombed-out Ukrainian schools oregon tanks rolling down Crimean roads, this makes them look alternatively detached from the bloody world they allowed to happen. 

They astatine slightest look rightly shamefaced astir however they got taken for a ride. Somehow, they apparently only believed what was politically convenient, and ne'er took Putin astatine his connection erstwhile helium went disconnected connected 1 astir however helium wanted to instrumentality backmost power of Ukraine. Barroso, for example, tells however he listened, open-mouthed, arsenic Putin told him that Ukraine was a instauration of the CIA and the European Commission. He acknowledges that European divisions encouraged Putin to propulsion and push.

Hollande almost, but not quite, comes to an apology: “Europe is inactive facing this menace of its unity. When we bash not punish hard capable astatine first, we are forced to punish much severely later. And that’s what’s happening today.” There’s nary quality astir that. We tin only hope that it’s not excessively late, and that the next Norma Percy bid isn’t titled “How Putin Beat the West”.