Commentary - Mart Laar and James Tusty: Putin’s Russian ambitions are eerily familiar

A man rises to claim a country out of the ashes of economic hyperinflation and political corruption. This man talks about the loss of his country’s international prestige, and casts that as being unfairly stolen a mere 15 years earlier. He promises to make the country strong once again.

People believe the promises. He is elected to office. He starts rebuilding a military machine. He consolidates power. Elections increasingly become a bothersome formality. But the people still like him, for he is a strong leader. The world watches and does nothing.

The first time Estonia watched this very scenario was in the 1930s. The man then was Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s rise to power and his alliance with Josef Stalin eventually led to 50 years of Estonian occupation.

Within the first six years, from 1939 until 1945, both dictators invaded Estonia, and the country lost nearly 20 percent of its population. It was a tragedy of epic proportions. Today, Russia is led by a man with a startlingly similar ascent to power. Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, after promising to restore the stability and strength of Russia.

A Chechen independence movement was then mercilessly crushed. He imprisoned the CEO of Yukos oil company and took over operations to finance his world efforts with petro-dollars.

Russian history books were rewritten. Totalitarian rulers such as Stalin are praised as great leaders. The Soviet Union is now depicted as the nation that “saved Europe from Hitler,” notwithstanding the fact that Stalin was Hitler’s ally who invaded Poland from the east as Hitler invaded Poland from the west in 1939.

Russian schoolchildren today are taught that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania “invited” the Red Army in as their friend. The same concept was taught to schoolchildren under Stalin. In truth, the “liberating” Red Army took down the Estonian flag from its capitol building, replaced it with the Soviet flag, arrested government officials and subsequently started a reign of incalculable terror. One-third of the “enemies of the state” sent to Siberian labor camps were children.

Putin has declared the fall of the Soviet Union as “the biggest tragedy of the 20th century” and has aggressively started to “protect the Russian national interests” by intervening in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations. Opponents of the regime who have moved abroad mysteriously die. Putin has effectively shut down democracy in Russia. Free media, independent nongovernment organizations and opposition parties are all under severe pressure. Their very survival is in question.

It is true that some economic stability has returned. Foreign investors, if they meet the Kremlin’s terms, can make money. It was the same in Germany in the 1930s. Just as then, not much attention is paid to the increasingly aggressive foreign policy. Russia’s neighbors live in fear.

The Russian political youth group “Nashi” is a big supporter of Putin’s. Its members shout aggressive rhetoric, gather at military summer camps and search for “enemies.” Who are the enemies? Anyone who disagrees with the Nashi mission: “One Nation. One Party. One Leader.”

Totalitarianism is always the same ... whether the youth wear brown, black or red scarves. But it is not too late to change. The West must look clearly at Russia without illusions and build a common policy, as advocated by the recent European Foreign Policy Council.

It is in Russia’s own self-interest to pursue another path, as neither Hitler’s Nazism or Stalin’s communism ultimately led to good results for their countries or their people. Totalitarianism does not work for the greater good in the long run.

It is time for the great country of Russia to walk away from totalitarianism and embrace true independence. It is running away from that path today, and that could be dangerous for all.

Mart Laar was twice prime minister of Estonia and became Estonia’s first post-Soviet prime minister at age 32 in 1992. James Tusty is a first-generation American of Estonian descent. His film, “The Singing Revolution,” details Estonia’s struggle for independence.