Amusingly enough, Putin gave the game away with this comment:
"This is very dangerous, nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law," Putin told the gathering.
What a fascinating word choice that "hide" is (assuming the translation captured the nuance), don't you think?
Putin didn't say that we are harming the ability of the vaunted "international community" to uphold freedom, and human rights, and democracy. He didn't use any positive word that might indicate a higher purpose of international law that so many in the West like to pretend actually exists.
By using the word "hide" Putin expressed the fears of autocrats and thugs all over the world who have UN seats. They want to be free to do whatever the Hell they want inside their borders (or in the case of China, the border they pretend includes Taiwan) without any outside interference. "Sovereignty" means never having to say you're sorry for killing or abusing your own people or any subset of that population. It certainlyshouldn't mean being held accountable for that.
The victims of thug states do not fear the loss of a shield based on this interpretation of international law behind which thug rulers can abuse, exploit, and kill their own people with impunity.
It is the thug rulers who saw Saddam chased from his palace paid for by the international community, dragged from his hole without the protection of the international community, tried by his former victims for his crimes with no help from the international community, and hung by the neck until dead with the international community only able to yak about the circumstances who are the ones scared of the trend we have started.
Putin fears that democracy and membership in NATO will continue to expand through the former domains of thugs that Moscow once ruled. Putin fears that the thug states who buy his arms will fall to our ideological appeal and fall from the orbit of Moscow's new alliance of rogue states. Funny that despite all the talk that we've ruined our international reputation that Putin fears our influence rather than discounts it.
The one thing I want to know is whether Putin is just worried about former satellites and new clients aligning with us, or whether he worries that our influence can reach all the way to Moscow itself.
