Putin walks a tightrope as evidence mounts of Russians dying in Ukraine

The Guardian ^ | September 5, 2014 | Natalia Antonova

[1rudeboy]

Vladimir Putin cannot appear weak, but the public won’t stand for full-scale conflict. So the stalemate continues

Hatred is not a tame beast. Once unleashed, it can be surprisingly hard to coax it back into its pen – even for a popular leader such as Vladimir Putin. The stunning reversal of the fortunes of the Ukrainian army in rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine is not so stunning when one considers the months of hysterical, frothing-at-the-mouth propaganda against the Ukrainian government on Russian state television.

If you’re going to label the government of a neighbouring country a bunch of baby-killing Nazis, it stands to reason that you will then fight said government. Or at least heavily arm the people who are fighting it. Anything else will make you look weak – and looking weak is the worst thing a Russian politician can do.

Evidence that Russian soldiers have been dying in Ukraine is mounting. Someone shamefully stripping a paratrooper’s grave of its name plate doesn’t make that paratrooper any less dead, you see.

Before the ceasefire announcement today, Russian state TV was forced to bat its collective eyelids and announce that all dead Russian soldiers were in Ukraine strictly on a voluntary basis. Right.

It’s hard to tell if Russia planned on serious military confrontation in eastern Ukraine. A government that rules by signal is difficult to read at the best of times. Of course, some observers have long pointed out that a messy conflict that Kiev will not be allowed to win is what Putin wanted all along – call it his subtle form of discouragement against Ukraine joining Nato, if you will.

[PGR88]

When Russians begin die in Russia, then Putin will be forced to think twice. Putin has brought war to Ukraine. He will always have the initiative until war is brought to him.

[1rudeboy]

And that's the ironic part about it . . . apart from the fact that Russia's neighbors (excluding China) don't have the military power to invade Russia, all of Russia's caterwauling about Nazis, and how it is being provoked in its backyard (its backyard, excuse me?), is pablum.

[DIRTYSECRET]

We need more Russians to die in the Ukraine. Put the faces of the prisoners on Facebook.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

These imbeciles know nothing about Asia, nor that the Russian attitude towards life and things is only half European, with the other half being Asian.

Russia had to be savaged for a year or three in Afghanistan before the thought even crossed their minds that there might be a problem.

The same western press that squeals like stuck pigs when a few hundred western soldiers die, demanding the immediate surrender of their side, have no comprehension that others may have backbone and understand that in war, good guys get killed as well as bad guys, and they can shrug it off.

[IDFbunny]

Yep, just like Cuba is our back yard. Our security needs trumped Cuba’s sovereign rights to house nukes.

[1rudeboy]

Whoo boy . . . we occupied Cuba? When? I must have overslept.

[IDFbunny]

No, we threatened to sink unarmed ships in international waters if they did not turn back. What if today we found out that Cuba did indeed sneak in nukes? Wouldn’t bother you?

[1rudeboy]

So you are equating a naval blockade in the 1960’s with the Russian occupation of Ukraine. Thank you for the daily dose of relativism.

[IDFbunny]

Crimea was annexed and is now Russian territory. Likely some eastern cities are going to get either autonomy to become a buffer or get annexed altogether.