Sen. John McCain said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “destroying” his country’s reputation in a blistering op-ed article for one of the country’s leading news websites early Thursday.
The Arizona Republican accused Putin of allying himself with tyrants and ruling through violence and repression, a scathing retort to a New York Times editorial by Putin last week.
“He is not enhancing Russia’s global reputation,” McCain said in the piece published on Pravda.ru. “He is destroying it,” adding that by befriending tyrants and making enemies of the oppressed, Putin was losing the trust of nations seeking to “build a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world.”
“President Putin doesn’t believe in these values because he doesn’t believe in you [the Russian people],” he wrote.
“He doesn’t believe that human nature at liberty can rise above its weaknesses and build just, peaceful, prosperous societies. Or, at least, he doesn’t believe Russians can. So he rules by using those weaknesses, by corruption, repression and violence. He rules for himself, not you,” he added.
Questioning Putin’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar Assad, which he called one of “the world’s most offensive and threatening tyrannies,” McCain asked: “How has he strengthened Russia’s international stature?”
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