Vladimir Putin: My Hero

In the history of mankind, there comes a time when the vision of one man transforms the lives of millions of people and forever changes the course of history. It is said that in every 100 years, only a few of such people are born. They are the few, the brave and the visionary. They are simply called geniuses. These are the world changers. Those that immediately come to mind include George Washington, Albert Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Gates, Mahatma Ghandi, Kwame Nkrumah, Mark Zukerberg, Winston Churchill and David Ben Gurion.

In my time, one of such game changers is Vladimir Putin, my hero. And my God, he never ceases to impress me. In what can be described as a visionary, compassionate yet fiercely nationalistic, Putin was Time Magazine's Man of the Year 2007. Of course, he did not become Time's Man of the Year for nothing. At the time of his rise to power, the man from St. Petersburg, a city founded by Peter the Great, Russia, the world's largest country and once a proud super power was on the verge of becoming a beggar nation, a “failed state” as Time Magazine put it. At one of their darkest hours, in the wake of the debt default, Vodka-induced suicides and homelessness were a common sight on the streets of Russia. In fact, at one point, a significant number of Russians were surviving on mass produced chicken donated by the United States. The Russians called it “George Bush's legs”.

It took a man of vision, a strategist, a passionate leader, Vladimir Putin to turn things around in less than 8 years. Amazing! In Time Magazine's citation declaring Putin as Man of the Year 2007, Time said Putin “chose order before freedom”, put Russia “back on the map”, and helped it “emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century”, and ultimately “brought Russia back to the table of world power”. Today, Russia and Saudi Arabia have the largest foreign reserves in the world, after China and Japan. Even in the recent global financial crisis, Russians were relatively okay. Russian billionaires continue to grow on Forbes list. Today, fresh from the shadows of communism, Moscow has more billionaires than any other city in the world. There is a lot more that the world in general and Africa in particular can learn from Vladimir Putin. And this is something I'd love to shed light on.

As a young student in England, I remember watching a documentary called Blood of the Vikings on English TV. The documentary traced the journeys and conquests of Vikings many centuries ago and suggested that some Viking ancestors may have settled in England, meaning the English probably have Viking blood. In the history of Russia, it is believed that Russia was founded by Viking ancestors around the 9th century. The Vikings feature prominently in history's pages as some of the bravest and biggest conquerors. From descending thousands of miles below the sea to riding in the supersonic TU-160 strategic bomber and shooting tigers, perhaps who knows, Putin has Viking blood. Putin himself echoed this blood line when he stated in his recent victory speech that it is in their DNA for Russians to win and that this winning DNA is passed from generation to generation. But Viking blood or not, that doesn't matter. What is important is that Vladimir Putin has a strategic mind, he is a bold, charismatic, shrewd and visionary leader.

Now let's have a little bit of presidential humor. It is no secret that many presidents want to be like Putin. For example, French President Sarkozy wants that tough guy Putin image, trying to learn Judo from Putin, trying to overachieve, etc. In the end, he overworked himself and almost passed out due to exhaustion. I think Sarkozy is a great leader but as a presidential joke, I will say that perhaps who knows, Sarkozy just doesn't have Viking blood. He is just not Putin. It's hard work to be Putin. It's like, “my friend, you're not genetically configured to be like Putin, so you better stay in your line”.

Within a short period of time, Putin has totally transformed the lives of over 140 million Russians.Militarily, the Russians have resumed their role as a global military power. Perhaps, the greatest achievement of Putin is that he lifted the spirits of the Russians and today Russians believe in themselves again and are proud again.

Who knows, maybe Putin is a natural born leader who has a clear and deep understanding of the complexities of the global game. He simply understands how the complex world works. I remember during an interview regarding the selection of his possible handpicked successor, one of the critical leadership qualities he singled out was that his successor must be a “modern” leader - one with a clear and deep understanding of the world of intelligence, military-industrial complex, international economics, international business, commercial espionage, technology, international law, diplomacy, political deal making and other important areas.

As a young KGB agent stationed in East Germany, where he learnt to speak fluent German, at the height of the cold war, he was inserted deep into the world of espionage, which helped him build mental courage, thicken his skin and ultimately refined him for leadership. As mayor of St. Petersburg, he sharpened his art and science of political deal making and horse trading. So when in 1998, Boris Yeltsin was looking for a successor, Putin was a perfect choice.

Putin's global insights guided him to make the right strategic choices for Russia and it paid off big time. So in today's fast changing world, Africa for instance cannot afford to have “old school” leaders neither can it afford to have internationally ignorant leaders to compete against internationally experienced leaders some of whom were groomed in Harvard and refined on Wall Street. I remember a cartoon that appeared in Newsweek Magazine in the 1990s during the Chechen war, back when I was a young university student. It featured the proverbial Russian bear, a big one shedding skin and becoming small, and then again shedding skin and becoming even smaller. What the cartoon really meant to say was that the Soviet Union had broken up, and that its main successor Russia was also breaking up into pieces. Thus, Russia was on the brink of total collapse – Russia was almost finished!

And that brings to mind the second master move that Putin made. He knew that Russia needed scale and strength so he had to keep Russia together at all costs. In a decisive campaign, he smashed the Chechen separatists and led Russia to victory. Some of his tactics may have been ruthless, but passing judgment on his war record is not the subject of this article. Today, Putin and Medvedev lead a relatively stable, united, strong and prosperous Russia. Again, Africa can learn a lot from this experience. Without scale and strength, you are vulnerable to “shark attack” in the sea of globalization. It's all about strategic interests and competition. As billionaire Mo Ibrahim said, only an Africa with scale and teeth built along the lines of the European Union can compete and prosper on the global scale. Any other way is the way of suicide.

With a united and peaceful Russia assured, Putin's next assignment was the Russian economy. And to do this, he turned to Russia's biggest and most readily available resources – oil, gas and metals. I remember a Bible story as told by Pastor Randy Morrison of Speak the Word Church International, one of my favorite Pastors. It goes like this: And Moses cried, “God! Save us! The Egyptians are coming, mountain on one side and the Red Sea on the other side” And God said to Moses, “Moses, why do you cry to me? What do you have in your hands?” Moses said, “The Rod”. And God said, “Use it!”. Moses then used the rod to split the Red Sea into two, and the Israelites escaped into freedom in the Promised Land, leaving their Egyptian enemies trapped and dead in the Red Sea. In relation to global economics and especially with African economies in mind, what this means is that in times of crisis, at a point of make or break, especially when there is little time to react, the best thing to do is to use your biggest asset – what you already have in your hands. That's precisely what Putin did. He immediately turned to Russia's vast oil, gas and metal resources, assets even Hitler sought as a tool for his world domination.

Meanwhile, previous Russian leaders had been sleeping on these huge resources all along and did almost nothing about it. Putin figured that the Chinese economic giant and other Asian tigers heavily relied on reliable and huge supply of energy. So did Western Europe. And so Putin decided to pump more oil and gas and boost other natural resource production as well. It worked like magic. And Putin is still using the same strategy today and still trying to diversify away from natural resources. Still, nobody closes more deals than Vladimir Putin. In every month or two, his foreign trips help Russia rake in billions of dollars in strategic investment deals. Europe gets about 40 percent of its energy supply from Russia. Some countries have accused Russia of energy imperialism and are trying to break Russia's virtual energy monopoly with opposing pipelines especially the Nabucco project. And even that Putin is countering with more pipelines, including the South stream and the North stream, and also trying to form a gas OPEC. No continent on earth can match Africa's natural resources in terms of quality and abundance, yet Africans live in terrible poverty. Africa can positively learn from Putin's strategic use of natural resources. A Putin strategy executed in a strategically prudent way could get Africa out of the woods by making use of Africa's natural resources.

After Russia was back in the black, it was time for Putin to boost the Russian military. To build a strategic defense posture against Russia's perceived enemies, Putin strengthened the Shanghai Co-operation Council , an alliance grouping Russia, China and many ex-Soviet states and also with India, Pakistan and Iran as observers. Putin understands that when it comes to conventional forces and resources, Russia's potential enemies may be numerically superior. So he needs strong 'allies'. With what he called “grandiose” plans, he rebuilt the Russian military and equipped it with the latest weapons able to fight and win local, regional and global wars with conventional or nuclear weapons. Just before Russia's elections on March 4, 2012, Putin revealed that within 10 years, Russia would have over 400 nuclear missiles capable of striking anywhere in the world in minutes.

Also, he consolidated Russia's key companies in a brilliant move to transform them into global giants. Companies without huge capital and resources cannot compete on a global scale because expanding worldwide, hiring the best brains, building reserves and doing research and development cost a fortune. That's why in the global civilian aircraft industry for example, only Airbus and Boeing are the big players. Putin understands this game very well and set out to consolidate Russian companies in key industries like aircraft, oil, military, metals, banks, nanotechnology, gas, auto and many more. Now, just as the Chinese, the Koreans, and the Japanese have done to compete with western global giants, Russian companies like Gazprom, Lukoil and Rusal are going global.

So the bottom line is that Putin has built over half a trillion dollars in foreign reserves. With this, unlike the previous times when a currency crisis for instance brought Russia to its knees, Russia will be able to withstand long haul financial crises, as it successfully did in the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, and even wage economic wars.

The truth is, Putin is not perfect. He would be the best man to say that he has probably made some mistakes. However, he is becoming more pragmatic and tolerant. First of all, I believe Putin won the Russian election in a fair and honest contest, and being the most popular man in Russia, he will win again if another election is held tomorrow. Having said that, Putin is continually reinventing himself in a brilliant way. For example, he is already taking measures to restore diplomatic relations with Georgia, after the 2008 war. On the issue of democracy, he is already moving steadily from 'managed democracy' to Western-style democracy - campaigning personally in front of thousands of people, doing regular media interviews and showing genuine willingness to dialogue with the opposition. I believe Putin will enhance democracy and become even more tolerant of the opposition and make more concessions in his next term.

Why is Putin my hero? In my analysis of global issues, my mind and heart are always on humanity. And this clearly shows through in everything I do. It's all about human progress and this triumphs over everything else. During Britain's darkest hour in World War 2, Winston Churchill defied Hitler's blitz and united and inspired his countrymen to never, ever give up. In the same way, David Ben Gurion had a vision of a strong Jewish state and he inspired his people to fight and ultimately succeeded in founding the State of Israel. I'm thinking about the monumental catastrophe that would have befallen mankind if Winston Churchill had failed and Hitler's Nazis had succeeded in their quest for global domination. I am thinking about the eternal sorrow that would have been endured if David Ben Gurion had failed and how the long suffering Jewish people would have been tragically stateless. I am also thinking about how the course of human history would have changed if George Washington had failed and the flame of freedom had been extinguished. In the same way, I am contemplating how Russia, a nation of over 140 million would have gone down and the river of blood that would have flowed. I am glad Putin helped to avert this human tragedy.

It is a primary human desire to transform. Families want to transform to become the millionaire family they have always dreamed of. Companies want to innovate and transform to become the Apples of global business. Countries want to transform into another Switzerland or Singapore. For me personally, I am working to transform African Leader Media Group, www.africanleader.net and Convergence International into a multimillion dollar global business. It takes a beautiful mind to make it happen. So it is almost divine for Putin to have transformed Russia, the largest country in the world and with over 140 million population all within a short period of time.

These days, I am thinking more about how Africa is largely missing out on the vast wind of prosperity brought by globalization. Over 135 million people have been scooped out of poverty mostly in Asia and Latin America. Africa's potential is being underutilized. Vast chunks of the most fertile land on earth and other natural resources still remain untapped. Over a billion people still remain underutilized and underachieved. All in a world in which Africa could be used as a new frontier market or growth engine for increased global prosperity. Regardless whether that hero is African, Westerner, Asian, or from wherever, a Putin-like mind could help transform Africa into a booming frontier market or new engine of global economic growth.

Perhaps the most important of all is that, for Russia, a nation that was almost brought down to its knees, power, pride, spirit and prosperity have been relatively restored. And for Russia and the world, Putin has already reserved his glorious place in the history of mankind.