My favorite song is Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Genuinely. I haven’t read enough Russian literature but I love reading about and am fascinated by Russian history. I deeply respect the courage of the Russian people in World War II. I would have loved to visit Russia one day.
Perhaps, if Vladimir Putin and the FSB have their way, I will. Just not the way I want to.
The Russian Internal Affairs Ministry issued an arrest warrant for me on Wednesday. Whoever issued the warrant forgot my U.S. citizenship. This is perhaps deliberate, perhaps an omission. Regardless, it means I won’t be visiting Russia by choice anytime soon. While I’ve always wanted to visit the Hermitage, Winter Palace, the Bolshoi, and Red Square, I have less interest in spending time at the Black Dolphin or another gulag.
I presume the intent of this arrest warrant, which follows my listing on Russia’s terrorist database two weeks ago, is twofold.
First, to intimidate me. The Russians want me to know I should avoid traveling to Russia and those nations which constitute its few allies. They probably want me to know that they likely know where I live. Perhaps they want me to sleep with a weapon. Basically, they want me to worry. Instead, I’ll keep writing original reporting on issues such as Putin’s breach of international space treaties. I’ll keep writing on Putin’s murder-assassination efforts and disdain for the innocents caught up in them. And even if some U.S. intelligence community managers have decided to forget their analytic tradecraft, I’ll keep writing on the “Havana Syndrome” issue (and the profound questions it raises). I’ll also keep writing on Ukraine and where relevant, bridges on its territory. I’m lucky to have the support of the Washington Examiner and especially its editor-in-chief, Hugo Gurdon (also now listed as a terrorist by Russia).
I refuse to accept the Kremlin’s invasion of my mind. Instead, in what is perhaps a slightly over-the-top reaction, I prefer to find inspiration from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Especially that scene where Henry meets a French emissary calling for surrender before Agincourt:
“Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald. They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints, which, if they have, as I will leave ’em them, shall yield them little.”
The second intent of this arrest warrant is to intimidate other Western journalists into avoiding coverage that upsets the Kremlin. It’s a long-standing KGB strategy to foster fear and then exploit that fear to ensure supplication. But it won’t work with most. As many far better journalists than I, Ivan Golunov, Anna Politkovskaya, Bellingcat, and Clarissa Ward have shown investigative journalism is critical and well-read.
Still, there is a broader lesson here about Putin’s Russia and its attitude toward America.
Vladimir Putin presents himself to American audiences as a leader seeking only principled justice and mutual respect. The reality, as he barely attempts to hide in regards to his unjust detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, or in his absurd ahistorical defenses of Hitler, is that Putin is a mafia don masquerading as an heir to Peter the Great. Don’t believe Putin is against America and instead only against “the deep state”? Then just listen to Putin’s hawk sidekick, Nikolai Patrushev, who regularly rants about how America is a purveyor only of excrement. Putin views America as his KGB forefathers viewed America, as “the main enemy.” He wants to diminish American power. And as shown by his and Patriarch Kirill’s treatment of Alexei Navalny’s body, contrary to the delusion of some American conservatives, these leaders are no servants of Christian values. Nor, as shown by his deference to Xi Jinping, is Putin the master of machismo.
Serious or otherwise, Putin’s threats ultimately underline a government desperate to broadcast strength even where failure is more often the reality. As Ukraine moves to a deep battlespace-defense strategy, failure will continue to define Putin’s war effort. But there are many such examples in this regard.
In 2016, for example, when a CIA officer evaded his FSB surveillance tails in Moscow, the FSB responded by having him beaten up by a guard outside the U.S. Embassy. This attack on a credentialed diplomat was then broadcast on Russian state TV. The intent was to transform a huge counterintelligence failure for the FSB into a macho victory over the main enemy. But the CIA officer accomplished his mission. And it was a mission that held great moral importance and espionage importance in reminding other Russians that the CIA can recruit them, support them, and protect them. Putin doesn’t like that. And it’s only gotten worse since he invaded Ukraine.
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Putin despises American success. He fears Ukraine’s continued challenge. And he wants to silence those who challenge him in either great measure or in small.
Navalny died because he provided a lifetime of true Russian machismo and investigative reporting in the face of Putin’s corruption. I’m sought for arrest because I wrote an article about a bridge. Albeit a bridge that, if Germany finds some guts, might not exist for much longer.
