The autocrat and the activist

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined the ranks of those who derided 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg after her recent address to the United Nations.

Thunberg’s critics, while a small minority, have been vocal: Some patronising, others dismissive, insulting and worse.

However, Putin’s comments were different.

While taking the oft-repeated line that while Thunberg’s attention to the environment was admirable, the Russian President went on to describe her as “a naïve child who is allowing herself to be manipulated”.

He continued:

“No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and people in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”

Really, Putin’s conversion to concern for the people in less well-off parts of the world is illuminating.

Up until now his attention in this area has largely involved sending his air force to wreak havoc on defenceless civilians in Syria. His road to Damascus has only been in order to support of the murderous regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Elsewhere he has sponsored the Wagner Group, a shadowy band of mercenaries waging secret wars on his behalf from Ukraine to the Central African Republic.

He has taken part in a not so subtle war against the European Union, cheering on the United Kingdom’s plans to leave that group, while his support for Assad had ensured a steady and destabilising flood of refugees into European countries.

Only in recent days, the identity of another group, so called Unit 29155, has been revealed, charged with attacking the EU through campaigns of disinformation, hacking, even plotting attempted coups in individual member countries.

It would be a welcome change of course for Putin if he was to become the champion of the oppressed people of this world instead of trying to blast them into the next.

It would be absolutely wonderful if he used some of Russia’s capital to construct wells rather than bomb craters; if he made a contribution to world peace, rather than indulging in Tsarist plots to expand his nation’s territory and malign influence over his neighbours.

Perhaps he might even do something about the more than 19 million of his own people who live below the poverty line – a figure that is expanding at an alarming rate.

The Russia President was right about one thing: The modern world is complex — a complexity that demands difficult solutions, involving sacrifice on all sides.

Unfortunately he and a growing number of world leaders do nothing to solve these complexities. In many cases they are the problem, not the solution.

Thunberg is over-young for what she is seeking to achieve, but she and her supporters have pointed to a way forward, and even if the details are missing, they have the energy and commitment to put to the task.

They will also be around for many years after Putin and other current world leaders are just pages in the history books.