Curtis DeClue, a one-time Bartholomew Circuit Judge who has helped Ukraine’s developing legal system, will be the featured speaker on a discussion about the war in Ukraine on Thursday at the Bartholomew County Public Library.
A former local judge and one-time county attorney who began venturing to Ukraine in 2009 to help that nation’s fledgling legal system will share his observations regarding the war in Ukraine during a discussion Thursday evening in Columbus.
Curtis DeClue, a former Columbus resident who was appointed Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge by Gov. Robert Orr in 1985, has since made a career as an attorney, legal and court technology expert who has worked with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to help foster legal systems, improve operations and root out judicial corruption in Ukraine and many other developing nations.
DeClue’s discussion will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Bartholomew County Public Library. As a preview, DeClue, who also serves as a special master for technology matters in the federal court system, provided prepared comments that he said represent his personal views and not those of the State Department, USAID or any other entity.
“For me, the war in Ukraine is very personal. … Friends and colleagues are now fighting in the militia and others have fled with their families to Poland. Russian artillery has destroyed my favorite pizza joint and severely damaged the subway station just 200 yards from where I stay when in Kyiv. And, in a final insult (or badge of honor?) in his February speech attempting to justify the invasion, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin specifically called out several of my projects as prime evidence of U.S. control over Ukraine,” he said.
“Yes, the Russia invasion of Ukraine is personal and I’m angry!”
Now living on Camano Island, Washington, DeClue said blame for the invasion lies solely with Putin.
“He’s been called a thug, a killer, and a war criminal. Putin is certainly all those things. If anyone thought otherwise, the human suffering he has unleashed in Ukraine is ample proof,” DeClue said. “Despite the names, Putin is simply a dictator acting like a dictator – consumed by ambition, greed, paranoia, and fear — fear of external enemies, but most importantly fear of internal enemies and his own people.
”Like all dictators, Putin is driven by the desire for personal power and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to maintain that power,” DeClue said. “He uses the same techniques and support systems employed by all modern dictators to hold on to power: fraudulent elections, a rubber-stamp legislative body, a compliant court system, personal control of the military and law enforcement, a co-opted wealthy elite that benefits from the system, a brutal internal security apparatus, a massive propaganda machine controlling the media, a nonexistent free press, a group of sycophants and “yes-men” as advisers, and most critically, a willingness to use violence, even murder (or in the case of Ukraine, even a war) to suppress dissent and eliminate political opponents or any other threat to his power.”
DeClue said that Putin’s long record of oppression and denial of Ukraine’s independence made the invasion foreseeable. Nevertheless, he argues the West must do all it can to repel Russian aggression. He said the rise of democracy, freedom and Western values in neighboring Ukraine are the greatest threat to Putin.
A Russian victory in Ukraine “could blunt U.S. influence in Europe and threaten NATO unity; Russian success could embolden other U.S. adversaries, most importantly China; victory in Ukraine could lead to another land grab by Putin and a wider European war that would surely involve the U.S.
“In my mind, however, two simple reasons outweigh all the rest. First, freedom matters. The citizens of Ukraine deserve to be free — free and secure in their borders and free finally from Russian domination. And, as a nation, Ukraine has the right to follow its own path as a fully independent, sovereign democracy.
“Second, this war is an affront to the world order and the rule of law. If Putin’s unprovoked, unjust war succeeds, it will mean that we live in a world ‘where the strong take what they want and the weak suffer what they must.’ In such a world, no one can feel safe.”
