Evil Leadership – The leader and at least some followers commit atrocities. They use pain as an instrument of power. The harm done to men, women and children is severe rather than slight. This harm can be physical, or psychological, or it can be both. *
While the world’s attention is largely on the war in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine grinds on. So my focus today is on the evil leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin – which, now year in, year out, continues. I do not even refer here to the pain that Putin’s unprovoked attack in February 2022 daily inflicts on Ukrainians. I refer instead to the pain that his unprovoked attack daily inflicts on Russians. On his own people, his followers.
The information in this post is from a report published in January by the bipartisan, nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies. ** The report details the cruelties that are regularly inflicted on men who serve in the Russian military – who serve in the military for the sole purpose of fueling the war by Russia against Ukraine.
Since the war started Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties, “more losses than any major power in any war since World War II.” Ironically, Russia has nearly nothing to show for its losses. Even in their most prominent offensives, Russian soldiers are managing to advance at an average rate of between 15 and 70 meters per day, “slower than almost any major offensive campaign in any war in the last century.” Meanwhile, while Russia has not so far buckled, and while it is, courtesy of the war in the Middle East, being gifted by climbing oil prices, its economy nevertheless is showing severe strains.
My point is not, however, the inadequacy of Putin’s performance as a wartime leader. It is the cruelty of Putin’s performance as a wartime leader.*** In Russia’s military, men reportedly fear their ostensible friends more than they do their ostensible foes. Specifically, unless they are able and willing to pay their way out of their predicament, they can be and often are abused by their superiors. For corruption in Russia’s military is rampant and so, in consequence, is brutality. Hundreds of videos are now being circulated on Russian social media that reveal horrific punishments by superiors extorting money from their subordinates. “Soldiers report being locked in cages, electrocuted and sexually assaulted. Those wounded, but lucky enough to survive must pay thousands more to be declared unfit for service, or they’re forced to literally limp into battle.”
The specifics are these. If a Russian soldier pays the equivalent of $2,000, he will be assigned away from the front line. If a Russian soldier pays the equivalent of $6,000, he will be assigned to the rear of his unit. And, if a soldier can pay the staggering Russian equivalent of $12,000, he will be given a fraudulent discharge on medical grounds.
How does such a thing happen? How does it happen that in a country such as Russia – whose population is more than 75% European – the regime is able totally to tyrannize its people? The answer is it’s a mystery of the human condition whose roots lie in the human condition – and in Russian geography, history, and ideology.
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*Definition in Barbara Kellerman, Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters (Harvard Business School Press, 2004).
** https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-grinding-war-ukraine
*** https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/russian-corruption-fuels-massive-casualties-in-ukraine