Russia-Ukraine war: Putin finds himself alone as criticism mounts  

Russian President Vladimir Putin might find himself increasingly secluded from his colleagues, allies and his citizens. This is over and above the pressure that is mounting from the global platform. Putin’s isolation appears to be stark, when compared to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been cheered on as the hero and in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine has acquired the status of a world leader.

The seeds of this war are age-old, but the latest fruits started appearing when Putin, from the confines of his residence during the COVID-19 isolation, wrote a 7,000-word essay on Ukraine. In the essay, Putin painstakingly jotted down the long history between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. 

Calling Russians and Ukrainians one people, ‘a single whole’, Putin said that the recent divide is the result of mistakes made at different periods of time. “But these are also the result of deliberate efforts by those forces that have always sought to undermine our unity. The formula they apply has been known from time immemorial – divide and rule. There is nothing new here. Hence the attempts to play on the ”national question“ and sow discord among people, the overarching goal being to divide and then to pit the parts of a single people against one another,” he said.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the essay soon became the Kremlin's narrative on Ukraine. His rhetoric continued to grow more hostile, especially towards the West and Zelenskyy. 

Leaders of the two countries met in January, but nothing came of it. 

The essay, as mentioned by WSJ, eventually became the basis of two of his threatening speeches given last week – one that recognised the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the other where he called upon the 'denazification' of Ukrainian leadership, which experts since say could mean his attempt to install a puppet regime in the country by getting rid of the current leadership.

Putin’s isolation

One of the significant steps taken by the West is to impose sanctions on Putin. He is amid a handful of leaders to face personal sanctions, apart from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 

Reports, however, point out that the West might not entirely be clear on significant holdings that are tied to him.

Additionally, sanctions on Russia ensured that the Russian rouble plunged 30 per cent on Monday. Western allies ramped up new sanctions, including cutting some of its banks off the SWIFT financial network and limiting Moscow's ability to deploy its $630 billion foreign reserves and shuttering their airspace to Russian aircraft. 

Two Russian billionaires, Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska, have also called for an end to the war. Fridman called the conflict a tragedy for both Russia and Ukraine. Deripaska, used a post on Telegram to called for peace talks to begin "as fast as possible".

The report added that apart from that, allies such as Turkey are weighing requests from Ukraine to block Russian warships from entering the Black Sea. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesperson said that the country would continue to help the people of Ukraine. 

Azerbaijan, an ally of Russia, sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Pakistan voiced its concerns over the economic fallout of the war, and said that third-world countries are always the most impacted. 

Moreover, Russians too have been protesting the war. Anti-war activists from Moscow to Siberia took to the streets to protest Russia’s invasion. Demonstrators marched in city centres, chanting ‘No to war!’ Police detained more than 2,000 people at anti-war protests held in 48 cities across Russia on Sunday. More than 5,500 people have been detained at various anti-war protests since the invasion began on Thursday.

Experts have also speculated about Putin's purported isolation, not just from the world, but also from his own people. The WSJ piece argues that when on Sunday Putin ordered Russian nukes on 'high alert', Sergei Shoigu, his longtime defence minister, lowered his head as a sign of consent. Putin also singled out an adviser on a televised national security council meeting for his inability to “speak directly” on the recognition of the breakaway regions. These minor points, experts say, could in someway signal that maybe not all is well in Kremlin, and that maybe this decision to invade Ukraine, may not have the endorsement of many from Putin's own inner circle.

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