Rep. Buck McKeon (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin in an editorial published by the Moscow Times Tuesday.
McKeon criticized Putin’s New York Times op-ed on U.S. intervention in Syria for failing to mention the Russia’s support of the Assad regime. The weapons provided by the Russians killed more people than the Syrian Army, McKeon said.
"With more than 100,000 Syrian civilians killed, the blood of scores of innocents is on Putin's hands," he said.
McKeon then scrutinized the Russian president’s sudden praise of the United Nations in the Times.
Putin speaks grandly on the importance of the United Nations and chides the U.S. for failing to seek UN Security Council authorization for humanitarian interventions. Of course, the U.S. has not been alone in seeking this authorization to deter the Assad regime — and other tyrannical regimes like it across the globe — from committing more crimes against humanity. It is Putin and his Chinese counterparts who have blocked this avenue. The world continues to wait for leadership from Putin or the Chinese Communist Party when it comes to human rights.
My suspicion is that Putin's sudden inspired confidence in the UN isn't so much warmhearted goodwill as it is a place where he has a veto over Western strategic interests. After all, I imagine the Security Council was as surprised as I was to see Putin's tanks rolling towards Tblisi, Georgia in 2008.