Biden must follow his ‘killer’ instinct

Mr. Trump was widely condemned. But the readiness of the American authorities to ignore Russian crimes has been bipartisan. When President Boris Yeltsin attacked Parliament with tanks in October 1993, Secretary of State Warren Christopher congratulated him on his victory. Despite Putin’s alleged ties to organized crime, President Bush said in 2001 that he “looked the man in the eye” and “was able to feel his soul”. In July 2009, President Obama described Putin as “sincere, just and deeply interested in the interests of the Russian people” – despite the polonium poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. An official British inquiry concluded that Putin was probably personally responsible for your poisoning.

To some extent, when it comes to Russia, American leaders are shallow for fear of what a serious effort to learn the truth could bring. But the United States, as guarantors of world stability, has a duty to gain full knowledge of the crimes of Russian leaders. Russia is run by about 100 individuals who control 35% of the country’s assets. With free rein, there are few limits to the actions they can take against the outside world.

In three cases in particular, the United States must make every effort to understand and expose Russian crimes.

First, we need the truth about the murder of Boris Nemtsov, Russia’s most important democratic leader on February 27, 2015, who was shot on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge, near the Kremlin. The official story was that Zaur Dadaev, a former Russian military officer based in Chechnya, with no connection to Nemtsov, shot him six times. Four other defendants allegedly helped with the crime. The regime has consistently promoted this version and the US has accepted it tacitly.

The Parliamentary Assembly of Europe, however, cited evidence that Nemtsov was the victim of an operation carried out by the regime – including the presence of suspects on the bridge who were never interviewed, the disappearance of the film from all nearby surveillance cameras and Nemtsov spying that it could only have been executed by an intelligence service. Andrei Illarionov, a Russian economist, published evidence that Nemtsov was shot with two different weapons, not one as alleged in court, and the video confirmed that Dadaev was not on the bridge when Nemtsov was killed.

Nemstov is a hero to many Russians; the place where he was killed has become a place of pilgrimage. But he was also important to the United States. He was one of only two Putin opponents capable of summoning a crowd. The other is Alexei Navalny, recently arrested after being poisoned. Unlike Navalny, however, Nemtsov was an opponent of Russia’s nationalism and aggression against Ukraine. The United States owes Russia’s Democrats every effort to identify those responsible for his death.

We also need the truth about the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014, which killed 298 passengers and crew. Putin’s regime mounted a disinformation effort after the plane was shot down in eastern Ukraine to create the impression that it was accidentally destroyed by separatists. But the evidence points to Russia.

A Dutch criminal court ruled that the Buk-M1 missile that hit MH17 was brought to Ukraine by the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. According to a report by Radio Liberty, the battery was accompanied by Russian intelligence officers. In a May 2020 interview with the London Times, separatist leader Igor Girkin denied any involvement. Asked if he was accusing Russia, Girkin said: “People can interpret it any way they want.”

What is particularly frightening about the destruction of MH17 is that it appears to have been part of a political strategy. Putin immediately called Obama after the plane was shot down and, citing the danger to civilian aircraft, called for an end to the Ukrainian offensive that was advancing rapidly in territory controlled by the separatists. In the next 10 days, he made 24 calls to Western leaders with the same goal.

Finally, we need the truth about the September 1999 bombings, which led to a new invasion of Chechnya and brought Putin to power. More than 300 died in the explosions in four buildings. Soon after, three agents from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, were caught placing a fifth bomb in the basement of a building in Ryazan. The bomb, disarmed before it could explode, tested positive for hexogen, the explosive used in the four explosions. Other evidence that has accumulated over the years also points to the FSB.

The United States never questioned why FSB agents were caught placing a bomb in the basement of an apartment building. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declined to answer questions about the attacks on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying only that “acts of terror have no place in a democratic society”. Russia attributed the attacks to the Chechen rebels. Unless the truth is established, terror may become the way that power will change hands in Russia from now on.

Many critics in Russia focus on corruption, which is easy to understand. But the greatest danger posed by the Putin regime to the world is a mentality that treats murder as a normal part of political life. The notion of human beings as completely expendable originated in socialism, with its abolition of private property and the conversion of the individual into state property. This idea is rooted in the minds of Russian leaders.

Russia responded to Biden’s comment by threatening an “irreversible degradation of relations”. But the path to better relations is for Russian leaders to understand that the rest of the world is determined to put limits on their crimes. The president needs to reverse decades of US political practice and act in accordance with his recognition of Putin’s role. Otherwise, the Russian ruler’s next crime is just a matter of time.

Mr. Satter is the author, most recently, of “Never Talk to Strangers and Other Writings from Russia and the Soviet Union” and an adviser to the Memorial Foundation for the Victims of Communism.