Blame Your Woes on Putin: How Russia’s President Became ‘Scapegoat’ for West’s Failings

In yet another example of the ‘blame game’ spawned by the collective west, Britain’s Conservative party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, recently drew ridicule after claiming that nurses going on strike and demanding inflation-matching pay rises was “exactly what Putin wants to see.”

'Blame Putin' has increasingly become a go-to mantra for the so-called collective west, as it struggles with its economic woes and policy failings. Why bother to dig deep into the reasons behind one's own shortcomings when there is a readily designated scapegoat - Russia's President Vladimir Putin?

In one latest incident, more ridiculous than offensive, the chairman of the British conservatives, Nadhim Zahawi, found himself mocked after comments made in connection with the strike action mulled by the UK’s nurses. After years of diminishing real-term wages, the latter were seeking to rectify this by locking in an increase in pay that goes 5 percent above inflation. The nurses threatened to go on strike on December 15 and 20 unless the government complied.

Nadhim Zahawi, refusing to look any further, opted deflect blame, saying that strikes by UK nurses was “exactly what Putin wants to see.” The lame attempt to link the government's failings with economic and political fallout from NATO’s ongoing proxy war against Russia in Ukraine immediately set Zahawi in the crosshairs, with commentators suggesting that “Putin Derangement Syndrome is getting out of control."

But while this last instance of the “blame game” may seem ludicrous, in effect, throughout the past few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been labeled as responsible for a plethora of grievances and policy shortcomings plaguing the so-called collective west.

Putin’s ‘War’

In an impassioned verbal outburst at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in late September, US President Joe Biden lashed out at President Vladimir Putin for Russia's “war on Ukraine”.

According to Biden, Russia "invaded its neighbour," and "shamelessly violated" the core tenets of the UN charter by launching a special military operation in Ukraine. He also referred to the then upcoming referendums to join Russia in the Donbass republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions a "sham." The rhetoric had come from the president of a country that was itself complicit in violating the UN charter, as when it attacked Yugoslavia in 1999. Furthermore, Washington had been determined to fan the flames of the Ukraine conflict, helping stage a coup in Ukraine in 2014 and aiding the overthrow of the elected government there.

At the UNGA Joe Biden blamed "Putin's war," totally disregarding the fact that Russia had been forced to act to stop an invasion by the Ukrainian forces in February-March 2022.

In effect, following the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics on February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine, and to completely liberate Donbass, after the DPR and LPR apppealed for help in defending themselves against increasing Ukrainian provocations. Moscow specified that the decision was taken to preempt what the Russian Ministry of Defense later said was a large-scale planned Ukrainian offensive against the fledgling republics.

On the other hand, since Russia began its operation in Ukraine, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have shipped tens of billions of dollars-worth of weaponry, wired tens of billions in economic aid, while providing intelligence, fire support and operational planning assistancefor the Kiev regime.

'Putin Price Hike'

The Joe Biden administration has been continually blaming soaring US inflation on the “Putin price hike” or the “Putin tax hike,” with the Democratic POTUS saying in June:

“We’ve never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas.”

The fact that Americans have to pay much higher food, gasoline, and energy bills was all blamed on Russia. The Russian president has dismissed the rhetoric, saying at a briefing in March:

“An effort is being made to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some kind of hostile actions by Russia, that you have to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat through your wallet. All of this is a lie. The truth is that the current problems that millions of people in the West face are the result of many actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, myopia and ambitions.”

'Putin Energy Crisis'

'Dastardly' Putin has been held responsible for all of Europe’s current energy crisis woes by the European Union officials and the media of the bloc's member-states. Russia's President was accused of seeking to “choke Europe off” from Russia’s energy, while in effect it was Brussels that followed Washington's bidding and embarked upon a self-damaging sanctions crusade against Moscow.

Implementing one sanctions package after another, the EU only exacerbated the existing energy problems, which hailed back to the COVID-19 and the developments after countries emerged from pandemic lockdowns. Global energy prices had already been creeping up in the fall and winter of 2021. Sanctions subsequently added "fuel to the fire".

Vladimir Putin had repeatedly warned Germany and other European countries about the folly of implementing the "suicidal" EU sanctions on Russian energy. Putin noted that Western countries had closed energy routes and imposed sanctions on gas supplies despite the company's readiness and capability to pump as much gas as Europe needs.

Now, the latest move from the west has been to set a price cap on Russian seaborne crude at $60 per barrel, along with the EU embargo on seaborne Russian oil, incorporated into the seventh package of sanctions against Moscow adopted on July 21, which also included a gradual phase-out of crude from the world's second-largest oil exporter.

Russia denounced the decision as attempted manipulation of “the basic principles of free markets,” adding it will only sell oil and oil products to those countries that are prepared to work with it on market conditions, even if it meant cutting production.

'Putin’s Cost of Living Crisis'

The Russian president has repeatedly been blamed for the cost of living crisis that has relentlessly eroded the purchasing power of households across the European continent.As sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s economy backfired, accelerating inflation and pushing millions of households to the brink of fuel poverty, in the UK, inflation reached a 45-year high.

But both Boris Johnson, the UK’s disgraced ex-Prime Minister, and his short-lived successor, Liz Truss, readily blamed “Russia's war on Ukraine” for having “spooked” their country’s energy markets. In a guest op-ed for local media, Johnson spoke of “Putin's invasion of Ukraine” and “Putin's war” that was “costing British consumers.”

"That is why your energy bill is doubling. I am afraid Putin knows it. He likes it. And he wants us to buckle,” the scandal-mired ex-PM had added.

Liz Truss – who waded in to replace Johnson only to be booted out very quickly after a quagmire of policy blunders, had also chosen to claim that it was Vladimir Putin's fault that the UK economy had tanked.

Climate & Food Crisis

Even climate change challenges have been linked to Putin and Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Reports in US media lamented that as fallout from the crisis in Ukraine roiled energy markets, it had ostensibly rendered transition to renewable fuels more difficult.

In actual fact, western sanctions appear to have hindered the growth of vulnerable developing economies and upended their progress in tackling climate change. One glaring example has been Zimbabwe, whose economy has been crippled by severe restrictions, as Emmerson Mnangagwa, president of Zimbabwe, outlined at the COP27.

Furthermore, Putin’s actions were faulted for ostensibly putting millions of people around the globe at higher risk of famine. In effect, though, the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis with its sanctions regime wielded by the west are being disproportionately borne by low and middle-income countries. There has been a significant surge in global food and fuel prices in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, as Western countries seek to starve Russia of revenues generated by its energy and commodities exports.

In July, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey signed an UN-brokered deal to secure a humanitarian corridor via the Black Sea to allow exports of food and fertilizers. Moscow has repeatedly said, however, that the deal is not effective in bringing grain and fertilizer to developing countries, as European nations take a big share of the deliveries. Russia noted that sanctions continue hindering its grain and fertilizer exports even though the deal is supposed to guarantee their free flow to global markets.

The Russian President weighed in on the 'blame game' he had found himself at the heart of.

As Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko during a televised meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May 2022 underscored, western sanctions had served to give both countries the impetus to focus on self-development, he added that the elites of the West were deluded about the causes of their economic woes.

"On the economy, thanks are really due to them (in the West) as they have given us such a push to our own development... What is happening over there is that they really underestimated it by reading their own media. They got inflation yet the truth is 'Putin is to blame', 'Putin is to blame for everything'," Lukashenko said.

Vladimir Putin responded by quipping, "We will have a serious talk to them."