Kathleen Parker March 18, 2014

“Once an agent, always an agent.”

This was the terse response of Nina Khrushcheva on New Year’s Eve 1999 whenher mother commented favorably about the new president, Vladimir Putin,who was then speaking on TV.

Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former premier Nikita Khrushchev, was prescientthen and feels no need to revise those comments now. Instead, hermother’s early reviews were symptomatic of what Khrushcheva calls the“gulag of the Russian mind,” part of the title of her just-publishedbook, “The Lost Khrushchev: A Journey into the Gulag of the Russian Mind.”

This particular gulag refers to a mind-set that includes, as her mother’soptimism implied, the hope that the next czar will be better than thelast. It also refers to the still-lingering sense among many Russiansthat Russia was better off before its post-Stalinist reforms. Putin hasgone so far as to say the collapse of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe.

Speaking to the Federation Council on Tuesday, he more or less blamed Khrushchev for the current mess in Crimea, noting that Khrushchev initiated the Crimean transfer: “What stoodbehind this decision of his – a desire to win the support of theUkrainian political establishment or to atone for the mass repressionsof the 1930s in Ukraine — is for historians to figure out.”

“Really?” says Nina, her eyebrow an audible arch. “Mass repressions? And thisfrom the man who has been trying to rehabilitate Stalin, the czar ofmass repressions, since the moment he got into the Kremlin. Oh, thegulag of the Russian mind!”

Khrushcheva, an associate professor of international affairs at the New School inNew York, is no fan of Putin, as one might have guessed. A woman whoprefers simplicity, she is direct, blunt and, at times, wickedly funny.Would that President Obama had a foreign policy, she says, adding that she is a loyal Democrat. Wouldthat Americans understood Putin for what he is — no mere bully, he is“an old KGB chinovnik,” a petty clerk.

Although Putin enjoys the popular image of the terrifying KGB agent, Khrushcheva says he was really a clerk whose nickname was “Moth.” More MissMoneypenny than James Bond.

In his own mind, Putin is “messianic, a uniter of lands and corrector ofhistoric wrongs,” Khrushcheva says sarcastically. Which is to say, he is often delusional. Yet his delusion is buffeted by the wounded pride ofhis countrymen, many of whom also want to see the motherland restored to greatness.

While American observers try to predict Putin’s next moves, Khrushcheva hasbeen on target thus far. Her prediction Feb. 20 that Putin would go into Ukraine — and six days later that Crimea would be taken over — wasexact. Her (measured) prediction now is that Putin won’t pursue Ukraineif only because it is too expensive to invade another country.

It is possible, meanwhile, that Putin’s yawning response to Western penalties could mean that he doesn’t fully realize the effect sanctions could havebecause he doesn’t fully understand how free economies and markets work. As Khrushcheva says, “You can’t order [markets] not to panic.”

Although the recent rollout of sanctions on members of Putin’s inner circle, viewed as weak, were followed by a Russian market rally, stronger sanctions could be more damaging. Then again, it may be thatPutin doesn’t really care. His interest isn’t in today’s markets but intomorrow’s empire.

Crimeans, a reported 97 percent of whom voted to become part of Russia (against a backdrop of heavily armed Russian troops), may be deluding themselves in thinking that their home might become another Sochi — rebuilt insplendor in preparation for the Winter Olympics. Asks Khrushcheva, doesRussia really have another $50 billion to create a new showpiece?

Meanwhile, the key to preventing tensions from further escalating is for theEuropean Union and NATO to chart a firm course with Kiev — and they must mean it. “What Putin hates is idle talk.”

As for allowing Putin to save face, as many commentators have opined,never mind. As far as Putin is concerned, he’s in charge. He’s theleader who keeps his word. Putin said he’d take Crimea — and he did. Ifhe doesn’t go further into Ukraine, it won’t be to save face but toallow others to relax. And for his beneficence, Crimea will be forgiven?

This is his calculation, in Khrushcheva’s analysis, and one can only hopethat Putin the agent explores his inner magnanimity and feels good about himself at the end of the day.

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