Russian ordnance is raining down on Ukraine. Some years ago, a Polish friend voiced concerns about Vladimir Putin, portraying him as a Soviet imperial revanchist who cannot be trusted—as if tyrants ever can. Accurate as that description seems now, I find it too generous. It assumes that Vladimir Putin has visionary interests other than his own, that he has the national interests of Russia at heart, a mission on behalf of the Russian people. Absurd. A tyrant has only one interest, his own. Russia and the Russian people are but a means to that end, and sadly, now the Ukrainian people.
Хай живе незалежна Україна.
