Putin has been hiding in plain sight for years – what took the west so long to act?

The world is on fast forward. This time last week we were still discussing whether or not Vladimir Putin would really invade Ukraine. That question has been answered in the bloodiest possible way.

What has happened in response to the Russian president’s alleged war crimes though has also been breathtaking. In just six days the war has prompted Germany to shake off its torpor towards Moscow and pledge to increase military spending and sending weapons to Ukraine. It has caused non-aligned Sweden to do the same when it comes to arms; permanently neutral Switzerland to sanction Russia; and a majority of the Finnish population to call for Nato membership.

The European Union has finally come up with something resembling a foreign policy; Hungary’s Viktor Orban seems to have realised he might have chosen a bad friend in Putin; and Paris has finally exhausted itself with talking to Moscow and instead committed itself to “all-out economic war” against Russia.

Troops have been rushed to several borders in central Europe, and in less than a week the west has openly talked of the toppling of Putin, something unfeasible last Wednesday. Most chillingly, the war in Ukraine has been spoken about in terms of becoming a nuclear conflict.

In many ways, the responses to Russia’s actions have been laudable. The benign complacency of the post-Soviet world has been completely ruptured. Holding a nose and accepting the stink is no longer a foreign policy option for countries. And all in just six days.

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But it begs the question why it took countries so long to act? Putin has been hiding in plain sight. His actions in Georgia, Syria, Salisbury, his cajoling and twisting of the sports world, his elimination of opponents at home, his ruinous backing of activists in the west, have long revealed his true hand.

This is no great poker strategist, with an inscrutable face, despite the alleged numerous botox injections. The man is a brute and the west’s accommodation of him over the years has facilitated his actions.

When the dust settles – if it settles – on this war, there should be a rigorous examination of just why he and his actions were tolerated, and for so long. Many have paid the price for such complacency. It is a tragedy that Ukraine has been added to that list.

Yours,

David Harding

International editor