Correction:
St Petersburg is located in northern Russia in the Baltics.
Additionally, Ukraine does not possess a nuclear arsenal at present.
I have been to St Petersburg. I also have never been to St Petersburg. The first city of the same name was in Florida, United States – a twin city with Tampa. I was there in 1988. I almost went to the second St Petersburg in Ukraine in 2002 – but did not. That’s the extent of my personal knowledge of Ukraine. I would say that’s the extent of many Singaporean’s knowledge of Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians and Belarusians. Until now, whether they like it or not, with the daily media streaming of the blatant Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If only a project which I was asked to do had taken off, I would have more to say about Ukraine. In 2002, someone in the Ukrainian embassy wanted to publish a Ukraine-Singapore directory. I was approached. Some preparation work was done and trips were arranged to Kyiv and St Petersburg. Then suddenly came the Orange Revolution. The whole Ukrainian government was overthrown – and out went the directory project.
So in the end, these have been my only experiences of my encounters with Russians and the like. Which is really absurd since Russia was one of the great powers and is still a big power. We have so much dealings with Americans, Europeans, Chinese and Indians – and so little with Russians.
My sporadic encounters with Russians consisted of interviews with ballerinas and cultural attaches in Singapore and chance meetings with hardened journalists I met abroad (who turned out to be hearteningly down to the earth). I still have their contact numbers and have called them now and then. They too have called me up whenever they are in Singapore. And that was it.
What I am trying to say is, even for an experienced journalist, I would welcome right now a more experienced local Singapore-born Russianologist, not a ma salleh journo, to interpret what exactly is going on, with its repercussions for small countries like Singapore.
Whatever justification Vladimir Putin has concocted for his invasion, Ukraine is not a small country. It has 44 million people and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine found itself in possession of the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. There were 176 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers with some 1,240 warheads on Ukrainian territory.
Putin and his advisers would be well aware of Ukraine’s ultimate ability to retaliate. They are taking a bad gamble that the Ukrainians would not do the unthinkable – even if the invasion is being presented as a fait accompli attempt to settle an old grievance.
If indeed Ukrainians are basically Russians, self-preservation must be an inherent part of their character too.
And if a big brother can do what it likes with a smaller ex-brother, where does that leave Singapore?
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.