There seems to be massive support globally for the people of Ukraine bravely fighting against Russian aggression. It also seems like the ultimate goal of U.S. foreign policy is to get rid of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
But is anybody focusing on what would happen in Russia if Putin is ousted? What does a destabilized Russia look like as criminal oligarchs scramble to fill a power void?
Some are wondering about this age-old truth, “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Let’s look at some of what has been said in the past. President Joe Biden declared in Poland last March, “For God’s sakes, this man cannot remain in power,” referring to the Russian president.
Biden’s team walked that statement back, but it’s still out there and it seems like it is still the sentiment of some key D.C. players.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has not flinched in his position that Putin must go. During the last march, he called upon someone in the Russian government to assassinate the Russian president. And in May he said clearly that there was “no off-ramp” to ending the war.
America continues to send billions of taxpayer dollars to aid Ukraine, and Graham still says that the war will continue until Putin is out of office. Thanks to the recent shipment of tanks to Ukraine, the war may keep going for another year.
Lithuanian President, Gitanas Nausėda, declared at the World Economic Forum that Ukraine’s military success and leadership change in Russia go hand-in-hand.
But he also confessed that nobody really knows what the transition period would look like in Russia.
Are we ignoring the danger of what an unstable, demoralized government with nuclear power might look like?
Maybe we should be careful what we wish for.
