Yes, I know I’m not the only thoughtful commentator willing to speak up and express my deep dislike for Russia’s dictator.
I hear there are plenty of Russians who feel the same way. A bunch of politicians in Washington D.C. have recently expressed a lack of affection. And a whole lot of people in Ukraine, with darn good reason.
To be fair to the guy, we have to qualify all this, by admitting that most of the people who disapprove of Vladimir Putin have never met him. Myself included. In other words, our loathing is based on hearsay evidence. And photos of the current war.
One person who has met President Putin, and said nice things about him, is former president Donald Trump.
A couple of days ago, Fiona Hill — Trump’s senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council — did an interview with The New York Times reporter Robert Draper, and she shared something interesting about her two years as an advisor to President Trump.
(She has a British accent, so you might want try to imagine her accent as you read the following quote.)
We used to have this running shtick in our office at the N.S.C. As a kid, I was a great fan of Tolkien and ‘Lord of the Rings.’ So, in the Trump administration, we’d talk about the ring, and the fear of becoming Gollum… obsessing over ‘my precious’; the excitement and the power of being in the White House. And I did see a lot of people slipping into that…
When asked whom she saw as the Gollums in the Trump White House, she replied: “The ones who wouldn’t testify in his impeachment hearing. Quite a few people, in other words.”
If you want to hear her actual British accent, here’s a 40-minute podcast she did with Ezra Klein:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/podcasts/the-daily/fiona-hill-ukraine-russia-ezra-klein.html
As we all know, J.R.R. Tolkien was also British (and so were The Beatles, of course) but Gollum was presumably Russian… or maybe a misguided American politician, like the ones Ms. Hill disapproved of, at the White House.
Fiona Hill testified during Trump’s first impeachment hearing, with the same British accent, and she told the Congressional panel that she came from the northeast of England, the “same region that George Washington’s ancestors came from.” Which means that she’s basically a foreigner. Like George Washington’s ancestors were. But not George Washington himself, because Washington was born right here in the good old USA. Although that was before we even had a USA, meaning that Washington and his friends had to create it, in order to be born here.
Ms. Hill was fired by President Trump following her Congressional testimony, which was probably to be expected.
Asked about Ms. Hill’s recent comments, Mr. Trump told the Times: “She doesn’t know the first thing she’s talking about. If she didn’t have the accent, she would be nothing.”
Russian President Putin also has an accent, but not a British accent. So that’s one of the things I don’t like about Vladimir Putin. His accent.
However, even with a Russian accent, he managed to become friends with President Trump. I’m not sure how that happened.
Everyone has their own personal reasons for detesting President Putin, and I’m not trying to force my own three reasons down anyone’s throat. Some people, for example, dislike pretty much anyone who owns 20 palaces and villas, helicopters, yachts, and over 40 airplanes, and has a personal net worth of over $200 billion.
If President Putin came by all of this personal wealth honestly, I won’t hold it against him. I came by my personal wealth honestly, and I hope no one holds that against me.
But I don’t like people — no matter how wealthy, and no matter what their accent sounds like — who start wars and kill innocent people. So that’s reason number two.
And number three. I just really don’t like the way he looks in this photograph.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.