Opinion: John McCain saw through Vladimir Putin better than anyone
By Vladimir Kara-Murza
Global Opinions contributor
August 27, 2018
https://archive.is/KzvRB
The Republican frontrunner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, was diplomatic, noting only that “the verdict on Mr. Putin is out . . . we don’t know enough about him.” (It would take another year for Bush to “get a sense of [Putin’s] soul” and forge a partnership.)
Bush’s main challenger, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, begged to differ. “We know that he was an apparatchik. We know that he was a member of the KGB. We know that he came to power because of the military brutality . . . in Chechnya,” McCain said. “I’m very concerned about Mr. Putin. I’m afraid Mr. Putin might be one of those who wants to make the trains run on time.”
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McCain’s “trains” remark was a historical reference to Benito Mussolini’s regime in Italy, and the parallel would prove frightfully close. Soon, Putin was following Mussolini’s playbook: seizing control of the media, silencing political opponents, and turning Parliament and other institutions into rubber stamps as he consolidated his authoritarian rule.
Eight years later, on Oct. 7, 2008, at another presidential debate — this time against his general election opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois — McCain once again sounded a warning on Putin, this time on his aggressive designs abroad. “I looked into his eyes and saw three letters, a K, a G and a B,” McCain said, adding that Putin “has gradually repressed most of the liberties that we would expect for nations to observe, and he has exhibited most aggressive behavior . . . in Georgia. I said before, watch Ukraine. Ukraine, right now, is in the sights of Vladimir Putin.”
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