Putin Must Think That The World Is Unfair. And He Is right

 Put yourself in Putin's shoes before rightfully condemning his invasion of the Ukraine. If he invades a neighboring nation that is flirting with joining an adversarial nuclear power, almost the whole world unites against him. But let a superpower invade a nation thousands of miles away for questionable reasons, and hardly a word is said and no economic actions are taken against that invading nation. In fact, that hypothetical invading nation looked at the placement of ballistic missiles on its border as provocative while it had already done the same to its arch rival. And had Mexico joined the Warsaw Pact nations during the Cold War, that invading nation would have probably invaded Mexico to take control without a word of protest from the rest of the world.

Yes, compared to how the world treats the US for its interventions and invasions, how it is now responding to Russia's invasion of the Ukraine shows the double standard being followed by the West and most of the rest of the world.

We an also make a similar comparison between Russia and Israel even though more is said in protest against some of Israel's actions. But hardly anything is done about its plethora of violations of UN Resolutions and its invasions of Lebanon and Gaza as well as its confiscation of Palestinian land on the West Bank and past confiscation of land from Syria.

Yes, it has been said that Putin wants to restore Russia to its previous superpower status and be on par  with the US. Though its means of reaching that goal are horribly immoral, its actions in the Ukraine can find parallels in many of American foreign policies since the end of WW II. Only a case can be made that American policies have been even more immoral since it has intervened in or invaded nations thousands of miles from its border.

Much of the world has been unfair to Russia over its invasion of the Ukraine in a certain sense. It isn't in the sense that the world has been wrong in sanctioning Russia for its invasion. Rather, it is because it applies a double standard. The world is lenient toward America's atrocities while harshly condemning and reacting to Russia for its atrocities. And the disparity here isn't because America is wearing the white hat while Russia is wearing the black hat. After all, America has also supported more than its fair share of tyrannical dictators sometimes even replacing democracies with the rule of such dictators.

How can this unfairness be rectified? It cannot be rectified in turning a blind eye to Russia's sins. Rather it can be rectified in responding to America's interventions and invasions in the same way as it is responding to Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. And in that way, perhaps if Russia or some other emerged superpower wants to keep up with the US, it will have to keep up with a different future America than what it was in the past.