Posted on 11/19/2022 2:11:32 PM PST by dennisw
Independent political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin attributed Putin’s silence to the fact he has built a political system akin to that of the Soviet Union, in which a leader — or “vozhd” in Russian, a term used to describe Josef Stalin — by definition is incapable of making mistakes.
“Putin and Putin’s system … is built in a way that all defeats are blamed on someone else: enemies, traitors, a stab in the back, global Russophobia — anything, really,” Oreshkin said. “So if he lost somewhere, first, it’s untrue, and second — it wasn’t him.”
When Russia’s top military brass announced in a televised appearance that they were pulling troops out of the key city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, one man missing from the room was President Vladimir Putin.
As Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s chief commander in Ukraine, stiffly recited the reasons for the retreat in front of the cameras on Nov. 9, Putin was touring a neurological hospital in Moscow, watching a doctor perform brain surgery.
Later that day, Putin spoke at another event but made no mention of the pullout from Kherson — arguably Russia’s most humiliating withdrawal in Ukraine. In the days that followed, he hasn’t publicly commented on the topic.
Putin’s silence comes as Russia faces mounting setbacks in nearly nine months of fighting. The Russian leader appears to have delegated the delivery of bad news to others — a tactic he used during the coronavirus pandemic.
Putin, who was once rumored to personally supervise the military campaign in Ukraine and give battlefield orders to generals, appeared this week to be focused on everything but the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“The next might very well be worse.”
And might very well be much better.
“The Interweb is full of independent political analysts pontificating.”
Yup. Like Scott Ritter; Douglas Macgregor; Larry Johnson; et als.
Thanks! And welcome back!
Sorry, posted it in a wrong thread.
Ukraine has become a disaster country and unlivable. This coming winter will excerbate misery of Ukrainians. Millions have fled Ukraine to Poland, and other neighboring countries.
Unlikely.
The future for Russia is Asia, not Europe.
I think you are incorrect about him being gone by March.
We will, of course, found out in due time.
Blowback will come to the US due to our SWIFT actions.
Not today or tomorrow, but in time BRICs et al will move away from the dollar.
Lucky for us, the Chinese economy is not what it states on paper.
No stated GDP numbers for three straight quarters is clearly an issue.
The dollar is just “the least shitty”.
The “west” has sequestered @400 billion in Russian assets. This winter, etc, shall end up on Russia’s reparations tab.
The more evil they do, the bigger will be their eventual bill.
And they can’t avoid this, because of the Russian policy on the part of the state and its oligarchs of keeping their assets outside Russia. Had they spent the last 20 years investing all that in the Russian economy... But no, they treated it as loot.
Add to that the Russian inability to export much outside the reach of international collection agencies - aka the USN.
The only people who like Vlad are some nuts here at Free Republic. He is their anti-gay, anti-globohomo spirit animal. Their comforting teddy bear
Well said!
Any nation which puts their money in USD or within the reach of the US Government will have it stolen when Uncle Sam disagrees with them.
The world has woken up to this fact.
The Ukrainian gas giant Naftogaz reported on Thursday that Russia had attacked gas extraction facilities during the Thursday raid, with at least two sites destroyed and others damaged. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal reported a strike at the missile producer Yuzhmash in the city of Dnepr in the southeastern part of Ukraine.
The Russian military started targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in early October, after a deadly explosion damaged the Crimean Bridge. Moscow pinned the blame for the truck bombing on Ukrainian military intelligence and stated that it was just the most recent Ukrainian attempt to damage civilian infrastructure in Russia.
The airstrikes have significantly degraded the Ukrainian energy system, forcing operators to introduce rolling blackouts. The head of the electricity provider of Kiev Region warned this week that, in some areas, scheduled outages may need to be replaced with scheduled periods of service due to worsening shortages.
Welcome to the “in the know” club!
What else about the “Pax Americana” do you want explained?
And all this shall stay this way until every country that doesn’t want to deal with getting in the bad graces of Washington (or London, Geneva etc) becomes sufficiently trustworthy as to seem a better risk. What fool will put their flight capital money in China though? The Chinese themselves want their money out of China.
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