Advising President Putin -- At Their Peril
"The ICRC does not ever help organize or carry out forced evacuations. We would not support any operation that would go against people’s will and international law.""Building and maintaining a dialogue with parties to a conflict is essential to get access to all people affected and obtain necessary security guarantees for our teams to deliver life-saving aid.""[There have been moves to explore the possibility to open an office in southern Russia].""Our sole objective is to alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the armed conflict. And the suffering right now is simply immense."International Committee of the Red Cross
“Putin has built his regime mainly on stoking public support, which has given him the means to control the elite."
Ukrainian forces move through the town of Borodyanka. Photograph: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/REX/Shutterstock "There’s no room for disagreement or discussion, everyone must just get on with it and implement the president’s orders and as long as Putin keeps the situation under control, people will follow him."Tatiana Stanovaya, political consultant R.Politik
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| Russian President Vladimir Putin center, attends a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. Photo by Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo /AP |
Close to two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his invasion-not-war into Ukraine, Russia's military losses keep expanding and so does its isolation. Things have not gone well for Russia in Ukraine. This was not the way the invasion was meant to proceed, according to Mr. Putin's calculations. His closest advisers encouraged his belligerence, and those who felt otherwise were so intimidated by his resolute insistence that Ukraine be taught a final lesson in subjective humiliation they stammered and stuttered and ended up saying nothing as a contradiction to the war effort.
Yet, rumours emerge of a small and growing number of senior Kremlin insiders questioning their leader's decision to punish Ukraine and its people with war. The invasion -- according to insiders who have quietly released to the outside world, their knowledge of the unrest beginning to percolate at the senior echelons of Russia's state apparatus connected to the Kremlin and the presidency -- has spurred dissent. A catastrophic error in judgement, they solemnly whisper, with a growing cost that will take generations to overcome.
And even they fear that their president could decide, should the situation continue to see him opposed by Ukrainian mettle and courage leading to further loss of face on the international stage, shunning him and his expansionist Soviet inclinations, feel forced to bring out the weapons he has hinted at. A 'limited' but deadly use of nuclear weapons as his campaign flounders and paranoia embarrasses his intentions. On the other hand, the Russian street, fed the Kremlin's propaganda, believes in the mission.
The shock felt when Russians first became aware that their military had invaded Ukraine, the sister-nation they are most familiar with in their near-abroad has faded with the inevitability of time and messages speaking of the courageous fighting spirit and overwhelming military prowess in campaigns that are bringing victory to Russia over the cowardly Ukrainian Military, and popular support remains strong. Theirs is a compassionate struggle to release their Ukrainian cousins from the stranglehold of fascism.
Loyalty to nation and leader leaped forward as tensions were heightened over the surprise reaction by the West. That very West that has always plotted to destroy the Russian Federation and is now responsible for sanctions and isolating Russia and condemning it for giving aid to Ukraine. The West that is arming Ukraine with advanced weaponry to enable it to destroy ships, warplanes, tanks and armoured personnel carriers - killing their sons and husbands.
Those senior Kremlin officials few in number who attempted to explain to their president that sanctions' full impact will be devastating into the future, erasing the nation's growth and diminishing living standards, only to be brushed off, earning them the disfavour of the man they tried to reason with. Who insists the price that Russia must pay, exacted by the West, will not stop him and its effect will fade over time. Russians know how to endure sacrifices for the greater good of the nation.
A swift victory, routing the Ukraine government is no longer an immediate expectation, but the Donbas falling to Russia is. It is not feasible at this point for a withdrawal at a point when withdrawal from Ukraine would leave Russia weak and unable to face the threat of the United States and its allies, scheming for Russia's downfall. A powerful delusion that spurs the Russian president to defy and challenge the legitimacy of Ukraine as a nation with a culture and a backbone, a haven for neo-Nazis, and a tool for the West.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Catherine's Hall of the Kremlin in Moscow on April 20, 2022. Photographer: MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP |
Labels: Questioning the War Wisdom of Vladimir Putin, Russian Invasion of Ukraine
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 22, 2022
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