Russia’s criminal behavior in Syria is the latest in a long string of crimes perpetrated by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. It may be unwilling to admit it, but Putin is largely considered as a war criminal, a butcher with whom it is essential to deal with. Putin has a long record of inhumanity. He has been an agent of the Soviet secret police, the KGB, a criminal institution which goes back to mass killings perpetrated by Lenin and Stalin; he approved the bombings of two buildings in Moscow in 1999 and used bombs to reignite the SecondChechen War where he launched an air and land campaign producing thousands of refugees; he let journalists and opposition leaders to be killed in mysterious circumstances; he supplied the pro-Russian terrorists in eastern Ukraine and his proxies shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight killing 298 people. In this sense, according to many Western leaders and human rights organizations, Russia’s bombing of Syrian civilian population and targets is the last criminal act of President Putin. He must be considered as a killer, no different in the breadth and depth of his criminality than the Serbian Slobodan Milošević. So, what should world leaders do? First, they should condemn Putin’s behavior and understand their moral standing since silence implies endorsement; second, they should refuse to create the impression they accept his behavior in public; third, they should avoid everything aids his criminal proclivities intensifying sanctions and, fourth, they should defend Russian democrats. One day Putin will be gone and Russia’s democratic opposition will be able to make the country a law-abiding state; otherwise, the world announces that butchery is the new normal. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Saturday, 7 January 2017 (source: bbc.com)