There is an inevitable trajectory with big news stories. They go from dominating the headlines to oblivion – sometimes at a frighteningly quick speed – as journalists and readers become bored, or are seduced by fresher fare.
That is what has happened to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Where once news from the frontline dominated the media, now it is relegated to inside pages or doesn’t register at all.
Once the poster boy of defiance against Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is struggling to get the world’s attention. Currently he is begging world leaders, who once flocked to Kiev to show their support, to turn up for a summit later this month to look at ways of ending the war.
And still the Russians attack innocent people; the bombardment of residential targets continues on a daily basis, claiming the lives of ordinary men, women and children. That is the way with tyrants, waging war from well-protected bunkers, indifferent to the suffering they cause to their opponents – and often to their own people too.
One of the most shocking things about this whole affair is the West’s complicity in the appeasement of Putin, and the willingness of many in power to use Russian money to fund their own ambitions.
We see it in the United States where Republicans have been seduced by Putin; we see it across Europe where right-wing parties envy the Russian president’s strong man approach to governance; and we see it in Britain where the ruling party has been corrupted by Russian money.
British foreign secretary David Cameron was an enabler when, as prime minister, he refused to stand up to Putin’s expansionist ambitions.
As Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson had an infamous ‘lost weekend’ in Italy partying with oligarch Evgeny Lebedev (whose father was a former member of the KGB). Johnson made him a peer, and he now goes under the title Baron Lebedev of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation. Quite a mouthful, but illustrative of the link between Britain and Russia.
Even after the all-out war on Ukraine was launched, the Conservatives continued to accept Russian money. Last year, an investigation by the Good Law Project revealed Russian donor Lubov Chernukhin – married to a former Putin minister – had given more than £2 million to the Tories.
Buying influence is part of Putin’s strategy to undermine democracy. Brexit may not have been conceived within the Kremlin’s walls, but it was a gift to Putin who sees the European Union as a threat.
There can be no doubt that Russian interference helped swing the vote. The hand of Russia can also be seen in the past two presidential campaigns in the US where Donald Trump was Putin’s candidate in all but name.
It was unsurprising that in the wake of Trump’s conviction last week, the Kremlin said it was evidence of President Biden’s “elimination of political rivals by all possible legal and illegal means”.
Russian bots have been pressed into service for the 2024 election too, with a network of fake accounts pumping out propaganda aimed at discrediting the Democrats. And here we come back to Ukraine.
US support is crucial if Ukraine is to see off the Russian invasion. Putin has already been successful in impeding financial and military aid. But the glittering prize for him would be the re-election of Trump who, in spite of his convictions, remains ahead in the polls.
The stakes are high. Ukraine is the frontline. If it falls, Putin will not stop
Trump opposes further US aid to Ukraine, but more importantly for Putin, he is also hostile to Nato – he’s gone as far as suggesting he would encourage Russia to attack a Nato member if it did not pay enough into the alliance’s coffers.
The stakes are high. Ukraine is the frontline. If it falls, Putin will not stop. If we do not stand up to him, if Western leaders continue to kow-tow before him, and if voters elect Putin puppets, we will all pay the price.
We need to get over the boredom threshold, and remain engaged with Ukraine and what is happening there.
