STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The piece sets off a flurry of reactions
- Sen. Menendez says it made him almost want to throw up
- “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exeptional,” he wrote
(CNN) — If Vladimir Putin wanted to get Americans’ attention, he seems to have done a pretty good job.
The Russian president’s op-ed article arguing against military intervention in Syria, published on The New York Times’ website late Wednesday, set off a flurry of reactions — some outraged, some impressed, and some just plain bemused.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said the piece made him almost want to throw up.
Putin said he had written the opinion piece in order “to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders.”
But he appeared to have raised some peoples’ hackles with the last paragraph in which he disputed the idea of American exceptionalism.
It was a not altogether-veiled reference to President Barack Obama’s Tuesday night address where he said that while America can’t be a global cop, it ought to act when in certain situations.
“That’s what makes us exceptional,” Obama said. “With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.”
Putin’s answer to that?
“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation,” hewrote.
He concluded with the line, “We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”
That didn’t go down well with everyone.
“Hey Putin, next time you wanna write a letter to convince America about something, how about you skip saying we’re not exceptional? #rude,” Sarah Rumpf, a political consultant in Florida, tweeted.
Other social media users suggested Putin’s talk of equality didn’t chime with his government’s treatment of homosexuals.
“In his open letter Putin says ‘God created us all equal’ – guess he forgot about the gays & his discriminatory laws,” tweeted Kristopher Wells, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta.
Earlier this year, Putin signed a law that bans the public discussion of gay rights and relationships where children might hear it. Violators can be fined and, if they are foreigners, deported.
The Russian president also annoyed some people by warning against military action without U.N. Security Council approval.
“Man who launched military action in Georgia and Chechnya without UN say-so says wars without it are illegal?” tweeted the journalist John Podhoretz.
Russia blames Georgia for starting the war between the two countries in 2008 during which Russian troops occupied two breakaway territories under Georgian control, as well as large parts of Georgia.
And Moscow regards the two wars with separatists in Chechnya as internal conflicts.
Some Twitter users unearthed a previous op-ed that Putin wrote for The New York Times about the first Chechen conflict, in 1999.
Putin, then the prime minister of Russia, struck a different tone in the piece in which he sought to explain Russia’s military action.
“No government can stand idly by when terrorism strikes,” he wrote. “It is the solemn duty of all governments to protect their citizens from danger.”
“Not a word on UN or Pope or Int’l law,” Philip Gourevitch, a staff writer at The New Yorker, commented about the 1999 article. (Putin mentions the pope in his op-ed this week as being among those opposed to a U.S. against Syria.)
The overall tone of Putin’s latest broadside was too much for Senator Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who said he read the article at dinner on Wednesday.
“I almost wanted to vomit,” said Menendez. “I worry when someone who came up through the KGB tells us what is in our national interests, and what is not. It really raises the question of how serious the Russian proposal is.”
But plenty of people seemed to think Putin had scored some points against President Barack Obama.
“I think it’s sad to see him acting with more common sense and humanity than Obama,” said Ashton Blazer.
“Putin made a compelling, though disingenuous, case against military strikes. Its effectiveness shows how badly Pres Obama was outmaneuvered,” tweeted Marc Lamont Hill.
Others saw it in less subtle terms.
“#Putin diplomatically serves it to Pres. Obama in the last paragraph. Can’t believe the #nytimes ran this,” wrote Mary F. Mueller.
The White House shrugged off the fuss around Putin’s jabs at Obama, describing them as “irrelevant.”
The important thing, a senior White House official said Wednesday night, is that Putin is “fully invested in Syria’s (chemical weapons) disarmament.”
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