People in Britain who think they are governed by fools should take a closer look at the Russian and US presidents. Vladimir Putin is systematically ruining his country. His war of choice in Ukraine is an economic, financial, geopolitical and human calamity for Russia that worsens by the day. For his own murky reasons, Donald Trump, another national menace, offered him a lifeline last week. Yet Putin spurned it. These two fools deserve each other.
On the table in Moscow was a “peace” deal that, broadly speaking, rewarded Russia’s aggression by handing over large chunks of Ukrainian land, compromised Kyiv’s independence and weakened its defences against any future attack. The Trump deal, if forced through, would have split the US and Europe; ruptured Nato, perhaps fatally; reprieved Russia’s pariah economy; and probably toppled Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
These are key Russian war aims. But Putin, suffering from neo-imperial fantasies and legacy issues, said “no”. He reckons he can get it all, and more, by fighting on. He has persuaded the idiot Trump that Russia’s victory is inevitable – and that scheming Europeans are the real warmongers. Yet his premise is fundamentally flawed. Hard facts confound him. Almost four years on, he’s still trapped in Donbas mud and ice. And at home, things fall apart.
russia still has hordes of undesirables, ethnic russians to draw from. i wonder if he targets the more remote /nomadic tribes in siberia.
That’s exactly what’s been happening. Pootin lures the poverty stricken people of the tiny repressed republics, with huge (to them) sign on bonuses, so a huge proportion of the casualties comes from these people. The chuds in Moscow and St Pete’s are Pootangs base, so he doesn’t mobilize those, and it’s also where all the mineral wealth from those republics goes. The Moscow state is a colonialist power, oppressing and raping all around them, while giving nothing back in return, and that particular political situation is very explosive. Those republics don’t want to be ruzzian any more, and who can blame them? Ruzzia is only held together by military force and right now, the mighty midget Pootin, has his pants down around his ankles, and he’s trying hard to not bend over.