Commander-in-Chief -- In Command
"I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago -- to immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.""If Ukraine was to join NATO it would serve as a direct threat to the security of Russia.""[Russia and Ukraine are] parts of what is essentially the same historical and spiritual space; [their] spiritual unity [is under attack].""[What is happening to Ukraine today, is a] forced change of identity. And the most despicable thing is that the Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to deny their roots, generations of their ancestors but also to believe that Russia is their enemy.""So you [Ukraine] want de-communization? That suits us. But let's not stop half way. We are prepared to show you what real de-communization looks like.""[Ukraine is not a real country, but one] created [by Russia in the 1920s] on ancient Russian lands".Russian President Vladimir V. Putin
 |
| Vladimir Putin (l) at a meeting of Russia's national security chiefs on Monday (Photo: kremlin.ru) |
The Russian commander of all that is Russia convened a meeting on Monday of his lieutenants in a special session of the Russian security council, meeting in St.Catherine's Hall in the Kremlin, resplendent in gleaming marble. An august setting for a theatre of impending conflict. A special convening, one where the musical accompaniment heard in the subconscious of all those present, was a slow rumble of the drums of war.
It was too splendid a theatre, too seriously onerous a decision not to share with all of Russia to view at a remove the seriousness with which their president views the impending danger their nation faces under the sinister denial of a neighbour unwilling to consider the Kremlin's offers of reinstatement of Ukraine in the bosom of Russia's fond historical memories.
Where an ingrate nation determined to rule itself as a sovereign right, makes a mockery of its own historical, heritage alignment with Russia. An insult not to be borne without a suitable response.
 |
What the meeting revealed to the enquiring eyes focused on the unfolding drama of top-echelon investigators and intelligence lieutenants was their striking reluctance to recommend war, outweighed by their fearful inhibitions over displeasing their interlocutor, he who cannot be denied. Moscow's foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin was invited by Mr. Putin to express his opinion whether Russia should recognize the separatist governments in the Donbass' Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
To do so would obviously be construed as a call to regional war with Russian troops dispatched to the territories prepared for a confrontation with Ukraine's military which would, as would any nation's military, defend Ukraine's geographic territorial imperative as a fully sovereign nation which another nation's defiance of national boundaries has placed at risk, including that posed to its citizens.
That the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk had earlier evacuated hundreds of thousands of civilians from the territories to Russia, speaks of a pre-arranged agreement whose time had come.
In so doing, the invasion that the West warned was imminent and that Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky beseeched the West for modern weaponry with which to counter Russia's move had anticipated. Naryshkin's first response was a hesitant feeling that Russia should allow Ukraine "one last chance to seek peace", an opinion that failed to impress Mr. Putin who responded, with a rictus smile:
"Do you want to recognize their sovereignty or do you want to launch talks?" The startled, sputtering intelligence chief was harshly prompted to "Speak up!". The immediate response was that the spy chief dropped his prevaricating stance, claiming his backing of the annexation of the separatist region, after all. "We're not talking about it, we're not debating it", a sneering Putin responded, shaking his head.
That little episode cautioned all others present that if they were at all invested in avoiding a slap-down by their president, they might be well advised to carefully weigh both their words and any expression of doubt over the president's feigned opinion-seeking over a matter he had long since debated within himself and arrived at an irreversible conclusion that they would prefer to avoid.
 |
Western intelligence has accused spy Chief Naryshkin of mounting massive cyberattacks on Ukraine, and he was in the presence of another two dozen senior officials all of whom were expected to present reports during the meeting, ostensibly to update the president on their findings and conclusions. A sham that stretched on for an hour and a half, all of which was broadcast on all major Russian TV channels.
Each of the attendees, one after the other, took to a lectern in the delivery of their assessment. Several appeared to be struck with stage fright, seemingly confused over what was expected of them. Mr. Putin, their stage-master and drama coach, drummed his fingers, appearing morosely unimpressed throughout the meeting's presentations. One can only wonder what ordinary Russians who viewed these sternly implacable-faced men with fear, thought of, seeing them humbled by their master.
"I was really struck not just by the toxic atmosphere, but also the King Lear vibe as courtiers were expected to vie with each other in playing the lunacy of the day", opined Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert and associate fellow with the Council on Geostrategy who compared the scene to witnessing a Shakespearean drama.
 |
Labels: Donetsk, Invasion, Luhansk, Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, February 23, 2022
<< Home