Biden Should Immediately Challenge Putin to a Live 2-Hour “Zoom” Debate with No Moderator, Just a Chess Stop-Clock.
With Ukraine invaded by Russia and Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons, Biden should immediately challenge Putin to a live broadcast/streamed 2-hour remote “Zoom” debate with no moderator, with just a chess stop-clock for a total speaking time of one hour each, with a three minute maximum per alternating segment. Biden would schedule the Zoom one week from his public challenge, since there is no time to waste. Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is being bombed by Russia every day. Already, millions of Ukrainian civilians have been displaced, with thousands maimed and killed since Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February.
The Zoom debate would be very useful to clarify what underlies the difficult, adversarial relationship between Russia and the United States, removing misunderstandings. Tensions might well be reduced significantly. The citizens of Russia and the United States (and of the rest of the world) deserve to hear first hand what’s on the mind of both leaders. A simultaneous written transcription and translation at the bottom of the television/computer screen would be required, instead of simultaneous translator voiceovers, so that there would be little room for mischaracterizations of what was said.
In the Zoom debate, Biden and Putin would ask each other whatever questions they wished on the Ukraine invasion, on personal, historical, and policy matters, no holds barred. They would agree that no question is off the table, taboo, or too sensitive.
Biden should ask Putin why he accuses the USA and NATO of wanting to attack and destroy Russia, rather than simply wanting to help Ukraine defend itself. The military posture of NATO with regard to Russia is purely defensive, justified as it was with regard to the Soviet Union given its invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia to remove liberalizing governments seeking democracy and an end to communism.
Biden should ask Putin why he liked the Soviet communist dictatorship and served in the KGB to defend it. Why Putin despised capitalism and wanted to eliminate it. What made him change his mind on communism. Whether he is grateful to the USA and the West for having staunchly opposed communism, which led to Russia finally discarding the failed communist system. If he regrets communism having ruled the USSR for seven decades, impoverishing its citizens. What he thinks of the Berlin Wall. Why he stated that the collapse of the Soviet Union was an enormous tragedy. When did he become a Christian, and why.
Biden should also ask Putin what he thinks of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights which all members of the United Nations have undersigned. He should ask Putin whether he thinks the USSR and Russia have been faithful to all the obligations listed by the Universal Declaration, and then point out where they have not. Whether Putin thinks it was correct for the USSR to imprison the writer Solzhenitsyn and the physicist Orlov, to send into exile the physicist Andrei Sakharov. Whether Putin thinks the USSR, as a member of the United Nations, followed the principles of the UN’s Charter, and then point out where it did not. What Putin thinks of the USSR sending tanks into Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 to remove their liberalizing governments. Biden should ask why Putin violated Ukraine’s sovereignty by invading Crimea and other parts of southeastern Ukraine, in violation of the UN Charter, instead of going to the United Nations and ask for his concerns to be addressed peacefully. Also, why Putin thinks the U.S. sanctions following Russia’s illegal invasion of Crimea and the rest of Ukraine are unfair and unjustified.
Biden should also ask Putin why Russia has jailed Navalny, and poisoned him repeatedly. What he thinks of QAnon. On the basis of what specific evidence does he egregiously misrepresent the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by fascistic insurrectionists as a peaceful protest and condemns their judicial prosecution, claiming it amounts to persecution. How he thinks the insurrectionists’ behavior compares with Navalny’s protests.
Biden should ask Putin why he allowed Russia’s large state owned companies (including oil, gas, mineral, steel, and aluminum companies) to be owned by oligarchs, instead of privatizing them and distributing their shares equally to Russia’s citizens who would have greatly benefited from dividends and capital gains. Does Putin think that was fair? Biden should point out that just from oil, dividends would be $2,000 per person annually, which means over $8,000 per Russian family of four. That would be a real eye opener for Russia’s citizens, who would no doubt clamor for such privatization directly benefiting them, and be outraged by Putin’s oligarch economy.
Biden should bring up Putin’s high profile public announcement of his new hypersonic nuclear missile while Trump was president. It included a computer animation video showing the missile launched from Russia and landing in Florida, where Trump has his winter home. Was the message supposed to be that Trump was at Putin’s mercy? Was it intended to publicly insult and humiliate Trump? Why have the video show the missile landing in the USA?
Regarding Ukraine, Biden should ask Putin where are the welcoming Ukrainians he expected to see, applauding Russia’s invasion of their country. How Putin can say that Ukraine does not exist as a nation, when it has been a sovereign member of the United Nations for 30 years, and when Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine in 1994, whereby in exchange for Ukraine’s nuclear missiles Russia guaranteed Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. How Putin can say Ukrainians are just Russians with a southern dialect, and then bomb them! How can Putin say that, when the Ukrainians are putting up an incredibly brave resistance against Russian invaders, against a Russia with a much bigger population and military. How Putin can expect to bomb Ukraine, not just its military installations but its civilian infrastructure, causing the displacement of millions of Ukrainians along with thousands killed and maimed, and for Ukraine not to be allowed to counterattack and bomb Russia? Where is the fairness or logic in Russia’s attitude? How can Putin justify calling Zelensky a fascist and Nazi? How does Putin define fascism?
Biden should tell Putin that he is behaving like Napoleon and Hitler by invading Ukraine, that he must be stopped there otherwise he will invade other nations. Biden should make clear that NATO won’t be intimidated by Putin’s outrageous nuclear threats/blackmail; that should Russia make use of just one nuclear or chemical weapon, NATO will assume he will use many more, so appeasement will be out of the question, forceful retaliation on Russian soil will follow. Biden should assert that NATO and Ukraine will make sure Russia is chased out of all of Ukraine, including Crimea, and made to pay full reparations to Ukraine. Biden should show photos of Russia’s outrageous destruction of Mariupol and ask Putin why he doesn’t admit that Russia is committing war crimes. Biden should ask Putin what does he not like about the USA.
If Putin declines to participate in the Zoom conversation within a week, Biden should show up anyway at the scheduled time for the 2-hour live streamed Zoom debate, with a cardboard cutout of Putin placed on a nearby chair, and proceed with his prepared statements for one hour, including the questions he would have asked Putin, to be followed by answering questions from the global press during the second hour. In view of China’s President Xi threatening to invade Taiwan, Biden should also challenge him to a Zoom debate very soon.
© Edward Sonnino 2022
September 26, 2022
