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| Obama and Putin spar at the UN – but do body blows count on absentee targets? | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The UN general assembly is nothing if it is not theatre – the annual opportunity of the leaders of 160 nations to have their moment on the world’s stage, literally. Every three years, like clockwork, one of them decides to throw convention to the winds and have the diplomatic equivalent of a hissy fit. | The UN general assembly is nothing if it is not theatre – the annual opportunity of the leaders of 160 nations to have their moment on the world’s stage, literally. Every three years, like clockwork, one of them decides to throw convention to the winds and have the diplomatic equivalent of a hissy fit. |
| Who can forget Hugo Chávez, the late president of Venezuela, alluding to George Bush as the “devil” in 2006; or the then leader of Libya Muammar Gaddafi tearing up the UN charter in 2009; or Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, with his 2012 cartoon drawing of a nuclear bomb? The three-year cycle has come round again, and so it was on Monday that the eyes of the world fell on those two great sparring partners, presidents Obama and Putin, in expectation that they would fulfil the role. | Who can forget Hugo Chávez, the late president of Venezuela, alluding to George Bush as the “devil” in 2006; or the then leader of Libya Muammar Gaddafi tearing up the UN charter in 2009; or Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, with his 2012 cartoon drawing of a nuclear bomb? The three-year cycle has come round again, and so it was on Monday that the eyes of the world fell on those two great sparring partners, presidents Obama and Putin, in expectation that they would fulfil the role. |
| They didn’t. Neither the leader of the United States nor of the Russian Federation hurled his pacifier from the pram, nor stuck pins into an effigy of the other in front of the cameras. Neither mentioned his arch foe by name – or for that matter even bothered to be in the chamber to hear him speak. | They didn’t. Neither the leader of the United States nor of the Russian Federation hurled his pacifier from the pram, nor stuck pins into an effigy of the other in front of the cameras. Neither mentioned his arch foe by name – or for that matter even bothered to be in the chamber to hear him speak. |
| But their words were daggers. And by the time each had finished – both straying well beyond their allotted 15-minute slots – there was blood flowing liberally from the dais on to the assembly floor. | But their words were daggers. And by the time each had finished – both straying well beyond their allotted 15-minute slots – there was blood flowing liberally from the dais on to the assembly floor. |
| Obama was first up. It was his seventh address to the annual gathering of the world parliament, and it showed. Each time he comes here, white hair has spread further across his head in a sort of reverse flow of the melting of the polar ice caps. | Obama was first up. It was his seventh address to the annual gathering of the world parliament, and it showed. Each time he comes here, white hair has spread further across his head in a sort of reverse flow of the melting of the polar ice caps. |
| “Dictatorships are unstable,” Obama said, speaking directly to an invisible figure of Putin floating somewhere in front of him above the assembly. “The strongmen of today become the spark of revolution tomorrow.” | “Dictatorships are unstable,” Obama said, speaking directly to an invisible figure of Putin floating somewhere in front of him above the assembly. “The strongmen of today become the spark of revolution tomorrow.” |
| Putin would have been quaking at that threat, had he been there to hear it. As it was, Russian TV was focused as Obama spoke on the real news from Moscow’s perspective – the pointedly late arrival on the New York tarmac of Putin’s presidential plane. | Putin would have been quaking at that threat, had he been there to hear it. As it was, Russian TV was focused as Obama spoke on the real news from Moscow’s perspective – the pointedly late arrival on the New York tarmac of Putin’s presidential plane. |
| Russian TV is showing the UNGA with a live box in the corner featuring Putin's plane landing in New York and taxiing about the tarmac | Russian TV is showing the UNGA with a live box in the corner featuring Putin's plane landing in New York and taxiing about the tarmac |
| Obama’s theme was that tyrants and bullies want to turn the clock back to a more primitive age when conflicts were solved through fisticuffs rather than dialogue. “Dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker world,” he said. | Obama’s theme was that tyrants and bullies want to turn the clock back to a more primitive age when conflicts were solved through fisticuffs rather than dialogue. “Dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker world,” he said. |
| In fairness, Putin wasn’t the only individual Obama had in mind. There was also that other would-be tyrant wanting to pull us back to a darker world: Donald Trump. “The United States is not immune” from the “politics of us versus them”, he said, before castigating those “calling for the building of walls to keep immigrants out. We see the fears of ordinary people being exploited.” | In fairness, Putin wasn’t the only individual Obama had in mind. There was also that other would-be tyrant wanting to pull us back to a darker world: Donald Trump. “The United States is not immune” from the “politics of us versus them”, he said, before castigating those “calling for the building of walls to keep immigrants out. We see the fears of ordinary people being exploited.” |
| That said, the Russian leader, his annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, and his insistence on propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was clearly Obama’s bogeyman number one. “We see some major powers assert themselves in ways that contravene international law. We’re told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder, that it’s the only way to stamp out terrorism. In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad … because the alternative is surely worse.” | That said, the Russian leader, his annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, and his insistence on propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was clearly Obama’s bogeyman number one. “We see some major powers assert themselves in ways that contravene international law. We’re told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder, that it’s the only way to stamp out terrorism. In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad … because the alternative is surely worse.” |
| As if on cue, Putin made precisely that argument when his turn under the UN spotlight came around later on Monday morning. In his first appearance in the august chamber in a decade, he launched straight into a scathing attack on the US and its self-aggrandisement, lambasting its disastrous influence in Syria and through the Middle East. | As if on cue, Putin made precisely that argument when his turn under the UN spotlight came around later on Monday morning. In his first appearance in the august chamber in a decade, he launched straight into a scathing attack on the US and its self-aggrandisement, lambasting its disastrous influence in Syria and through the Middle East. |
| “We all know that after the end of the cold war a single centre of domination emerged in the world, and then those who found themselves at the top of the pyramid were tempted to think they were so strong and exceptional they knew better than the rest,” he said. | “We all know that after the end of the cold war a single centre of domination emerged in the world, and then those who found themselves at the top of the pyramid were tempted to think they were so strong and exceptional they knew better than the rest,” he said. |
| In the diplomatic equivalent of a black-belt karate kick below the belt, he euphemistically likened the superpower excesses of the US to the former Soviet Union. “We should remember the lessons of the Soviet Union – social experiments for export,” he lunged. | In the diplomatic equivalent of a black-belt karate kick below the belt, he euphemistically likened the superpower excesses of the US to the former Soviet Union. “We should remember the lessons of the Soviet Union – social experiments for export,” he lunged. |
| “Instead of learning from other’s mistakes, people keep repeating them. Rather than bringing about reforms, we have aggressive foreign interference … I cannot help wanting to ask the people who have caused the situation: ‘Do you regret what you have done?’” | “Instead of learning from other’s mistakes, people keep repeating them. Rather than bringing about reforms, we have aggressive foreign interference … I cannot help wanting to ask the people who have caused the situation: ‘Do you regret what you have done?’” |
| Later on Monday, Putin was expected to have the chance to put that question to Obama in person at their first one-to-one encounter in almost a year. Given the tone of their two UN addresses, it seemed likely to be a lively session. | Later on Monday, Putin was expected to have the chance to put that question to Obama in person at their first one-to-one encounter in almost a year. Given the tone of their two UN addresses, it seemed likely to be a lively session. |