The Measure of The Man (Putin, of Course)!

"It was very obvious to us in our conversations with him that he was shocked and bewildered by what was happening [after Russian troops entered Ukraine in February] for all kinds of reasons."

"He believed not just in the closeness of the Russian and Ukrainian people, he believed that those two nations were intermingled."

Pavel Palazhehenko, colleague, assistant to Mikhail Gorbachev

Putin pays his last respects to former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev  Associated Press

 

And so, a world leader whose decision it was to release the shackles of a grim ideology to allow breathing room for the people of Russia and to reach for conciliation with the non-Communist world, whose ambition to succeed instead led to the dissolution of a system he meant to alter, not destroy, will be buried on Saturday minus the state funeral that most great leaders are honoured by. His initiative to modernize and open the Soviet Union inspired the satellite states of the USSR to declare themselves independent.

This dismayed him, but realizing he would have to resort to military means to stop secession, and fearing the violent chaos that would inevitably overtake a situation of conflict in a nuclear state, he chose to allow events to unfold as they would. And they did, leaving Russia wounded and alone in an Eastern Europe that triumphed over its new national autonomies. Which also led to old ethnic and national enmities resurfacing and with them, conflict.

His successors reviled Mr. Gorbachev's responsibility in the breakup of the Russian empire. For his part, former leader Gorbachev despaired over the inept rule and drunken stupor of Boris Yeltsin, who in his trust in and reliance upon, former KGB operative Vladimir Putin, tried to reverse their predecessor's initiatives that freed political prisoners, allowed Russians to travel abroad, relaxed previously untouchable Kremlin rules and opened to the West, while agreeing to diminish Russia's nuclear arsenal.

 

Johen Luebke/Getty Images    Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on December 21, 2004   

 

It was, said Vladimir Putin taking power in 2000, "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", mourning the passing of the USSR and the loss of its prestige and position as a world power on par with the United States. Pavel Palazhchenko, who acted as Mr. Gorbachev's interpreter for 37 years, (Gorbachev spoke almost flawless German and English)  travelling with him to U.S.-Soviet summits, revealed that the man he spoke with regularly had been traumatized by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And yet another Russian figure of authority followed Mr. Gorbachev into death. The very same week Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of the board of Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil, was reported to have fallen from a hospital window in Moscow, to his death. His unfortunate death by 'suicide' the latest in a series of businessmen to die mysteriorusly and suddenly.

Russian state news agency TASS, wrote of the death as a suicide in citing a source in law enforcement who stated that the businessman was admitted to hospital following a heart attack, and was also taking antidepressants. Six other Russian businessman, most in the energy industry, also died in unclear circumstances in the past few months.An epidemic of suicides linked to conscience statements critical of the Kremlin/Putin.

 

Natural gas flares at a Lukoil drill rig in Russia's Caspian Sea in 2018. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

 

Lukoil was among a few Russian energy companies to publicly urge an end  to Russia's 'special military operation' in Ukraine. Through its chief, now dead by 'suicide', in March called for the "immediate cessation of the armed conflict." If you're an ordinary Russian such expressions of anti-Kremlin sympathies can be solved by a lengthy jail sentence. If one is a high-profile public figure, the solution to such un-Russian behaviour is more likely to be an inexplicable, sudden death.

Three different sources speaking on the basis of their close acquaintance with the suicidal businessman Ravil Maganov, stated their disbelief that he would have chosen to commit suicide. Political opponents, News reporters, Kremlin/Putin critics, they all seem to come to unfortunate sad ends; Dame Fortune is not kind to those who criticize Vladimir Putin, they all share the potential for a shortened life expectancy. For the courage of their convictions they pay a steep price.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ravil Maganov, chairman of the board of directors of oil company Lukoil, pose for a photo during an awards ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow in November 2019. On Thursday, Russian media cited sources saying the 67-year-old Maganov had died after falling out of a hospital window. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)