Russian Soviet foreign minister Lavrov has claimed that Vladimir Putin is not sick, which, of course, means in "Russian-speak" that the man couldn't even be helped if he were being cared for by the Mayo Clinic. I've personally seen footage of him with a wool blanket on his lap on May Day (it was in the sixties that day, hardly cold), and I've also seen footage of him hobbling a la Biden across the stage to greet Lukashenko of Belarus. I perhaps exaggerate a bit, but a good guide to anything coming out of Russia's government these days is to assume that about the opposite is true.
Really, as I look at what's going on in Ukraine, it seems to me that Ukraine's defence forces have largely solved the puzzle of how to deal with Russian infantry and tanks, but Russia is gaining slowly as they bring artillery to bear, predominantly on civilian targets, as they did in Syria and Chechnya. More or less, this series of war crimes ( ICC investigations are at 15,000 and rising) is the rhetoric of an abusive ex-husband; "if I cannot have you, no one else will, either." Praying that someone figures out how to seriously disrupt Russia's supply chain, to put it mildly.
And in that light, especially reprehensible is the behavior of President Biden, who has repeatedly (MIG-29s from Poland, long range rocket systems, etc..) yanked hope away from Ukraine's defenders. It is as if the State Department has no ability to work with NATO partners and announce weapons systems deliveries when they are actually available and approved. Biden and his handlers seem to have no awareness of basic military strategy in this regard.
As always, Putin delenda est.
2 comments:
Both sides are villanous, so I can't be bothered to care. I just want the U.S. to stay out of it.
Yeah, I know it's too late for that now...
No doubt there's a lot of bad that's come out of Ukraine as well, but it strikes me that a great deal of it has to do with Russia trying to call the shots from Moscow, from support of "pro-Russian" parties to a proxy war/hot war in Donbas.
The super dangerous side is the likelihood that it'll go nuclear, and the up side is that if Putin loses, both countries could at least get a chance at freedom and normal life. Not a gimme, but a chance. Putin wins, both nations are in political darkness for a while, and that's practically guaranteed.
Yes, a bit of Realpolitik on my part here.
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