Putin, best served with a grain of salt…

In today’s New York Times, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has penned an article in an attempt to “speak directly to the American people and their political leaders” titled "What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria”.

While the article is well-worded and he does make what seem to be some valid points, there are two sentences in his article that I question. After reading them, my BS Alarm sounded loudly and clearly and my Inviso-Shield of distrust popped up serving as a call out for a deeper explanation in the meaning behind his statements.

I’m the first to say that I’ve been a bit our of the loop over the last seven days (to be exact) as I have been focusing on moving into a new home. I was without cable television or internet service for a good part of the time. The lapse in service wasn’t earth shattering as I was able to busy myself with unpacking, arranging, and dealing with a litany of contractors and last minute tweaks to the new abode.

Pre-occupied as I have been however, I was still able to follow with a modest degree of awareness the unfolding of the sticky events in connection to the potential American military strike in Syria.  I watched Obama’s speech and I have been able to follow quite a bit of commentary when streaming a variety of NPR affiliates.

Which brings me to question #1…

In his communiqué, Putin states that “there is every reason to believe” that chemical weapons were “used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists.” 

This is the first I have read or heard of this possibility. Did this somehow fall of my radar while I was busy with my relocation or does Putin simply need a tin foil hat to go with his straight jacket? Or, perhaps it could also be a complete fabrication. In any case, in my humble opinion, it seems highly questionable.

My second question - which is really more of a rhetorical questioning of his words – is sparked by Putin’s last sentence in the article which reads, “We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

If he truly believes that we are all equal, why is he turning a completely blind eye to – or worse yet – enforcing and promoting the abuse of LGBT Russian citizens?

So, while I may admittedly be the potentially biased voice of a person whose early years occurred prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain, I ‘m just not certain if Putin’s words hold any deep truth in this situation.

And on that note, I’m back to my unpacking…