Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona took to the Russian media today, slamming Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government in a scathing op-ed response to Putin’s similar New York Times piece. The article, available here in English and here in Russian, appears on the site Pravda.ru promoting and upholding American values Putin so easily condemned.

Last week, President Putin wrote an op-ed piece published in the New York Times that criticized President Obama and his handling of the crisis in Syria, also calling into question the sentimental idea of “American exceptionalism” President Obama championed in a nationwide address.

Putin’s article was penned while President Obama pushed the international community to join in using military force to bring the perpetrators of the August 21 chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians to justice. President Obama has not ruled out whether a strike will be ordered, but has since submitted to diplomacy and a resolution put forth by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Putin warned in his article that, should our Commander in Chief order the employment of American military might, it “will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism,” also noting along the way that  “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”

Senator McCain’s article takes a direct shot at Putin and his administration, telling the Russian people of himself that he’s ” pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today.” He subsequently paints a picture of a Stalinistic-WWII-era tyranny currently running the country under the guise of a modern constitutional republic.

“They don’t respect your dignity or accept your authority over them. They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance. To perpetuate their power they foster rampant corruption in your courts and your economy and terrorize and even assassinate journalists who try to expose their corruption.”

But it doesn’t end there as the Senator calls out the Russian authorities for the barbarous mistreatment of freedom of speech proponents, Russia’s loyalties to corrupt countries like Syria and its President Bashar al-Assad, and Putin’s own personal and political agenda.

Interestingly, Mccain, a self-professed opponent to marriage equality here in the United States, ripped Putin and company for their severely conservative laws banning homosexual propaganda.

Most of all, though, the Senator’s article bluntly tells the Russians that the U.S. believes whole-heartedly in their “capacity for self-government” and “desire for justice and opportunity.”

The reactions over social media networks like Twitter to Senator McCain’s publication can generally be described as positive, though some are not without reservation both here and abroad. Still I’d be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t glad that an American official, party politics aside, responded candidly to what some feel was Putin blatantly spitting in the eye of Lady Liberty.

 

For those of you with a view on the matter, feel free to share your thoughts respectfully in the comments section below.

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