Now hardline ex-KGB chief joins Russians telling Putin NOT to invade Ukraine - while six Russian warships storm towards Black Sea despite Macron's claims to have a de-escalation deal

Daily Mail ^ | 8 February 2022 | Nick Craven and Will Stewart

[tlozo]

A former head of the KGB has publicly warned Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine, becoming the second prominent figure to do so in two days...

Yevgeny Savostyanov, 69, has announced he backs a letter penned by Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, 78, which warns Putin against an attack on Ukraine and accuses him of whipping up an 'artificial' conflict to distract from his domestic problems.

Savostyanov applauded Ivashov's letter for proving that 'Russian patriots are not saliva-spraying people who beat the drum of war' but 'those who care about the peaceful and prosperous development of cities, towns and villages of our country'.

He denounced the 'imperial lust of Russia's leaders' and said he backed Ivashov's demand for Putin's immediate resignation...

Savostyanov, who was head of the FSB in Moscow and Moscow region between 1991 and 1994, when the counter-intelligence service was known as the KGB and FSK, said Ivashov deserved 'all round support' for his anti-war plea as chairman of the independent All-Russian Officers' Assembly.

'It proves that Russian patriots are not saliva-spraying people who beat the drum of war and pump up a military threat by massing troops and using threatening rhetoric, but those who care about the peaceful and prosperous development of cities, towns and villages of our country,' he said.

'Peace and prosperity to the people of Russia, not the satisfaction of the imperial lust of its leaders. This is a truly patriotic demand that unites honest and responsible people, albeit with different views.'

Savostyanov, who served in the Kremlin as deputy head of Boris Yeltsin's presidential administration from 1996 to 1998, holding a more senior position to Putin at the time, also said he backed Ivashov's demand for Putin's resignation...

[tlozo]

Former KGB head Yevgeny Savostyanov, 69,

[Yo-Yo]

despite Macron's claims to have a de-escalation deal

[Gay State Conservative]

Ten busks says that the Butchers of Beijing are telling him to invade.

[alloysteel]

Double head-fake. It still suckers the Joe Stolen/”Que mala” Harris regime into keeping up the drumbeat for “sanctions” (to which Germany, as one of the signatories, will not accept) if the Russian forces cross into what is left of the Ukraine (having annexed already much of the eastern portion of the Ukraine and the Crimea Peninsula), therefore throwing even greater strains upon the NATO alliance. But Russia has no such designs, preferring rather simply toppling the current democratically elected leadership of the Ukraine, and substituting their own puppet, much as they have done in Belarus already.

[Liz]

Amen.......they know lily white Biden desperately needs
a midterm win.......but it ain’t gonna be at Putin’s expense.

[bert]

Mother Russia remains terminally ill

[bert]

——to distract from his domestic problems.-——

Mother Russia remains terminally ill

[tlozo]

(having annexed already much of the eastern portion of the Ukraine)

The Russian occupied area of Ukraine's southeast is a small part.

[nathanbedford]

Russia, whether Tzarist Russia or Soviet Russia, has always had its internal tensions. The good news is that these tensions that have not been very publicly apparent since Putin firmed up control have now become matters of national public discourse.

So Putin must now accommodate these interests and, importantly, to some degree he must do so in public. The more the matters are made public the more his options are constrained.

[bert]

My thought is that absent weapons and oil sales, Russia is not sustainable

[nathanbedford]

Right!

Hence the partnership with its natural enemy, China and its deals with Germany.

Putin's second best ally is probably Biden who has obligingly driven the price of oil above the bankruptcy point for Russia.

[bert]

I question the supposition that Russia actually has any ally.

China is China and not an ally to a noncommunist state.

[nathanbedford]

That is why I identified China as Russia's natural enemy.

[HombreSecreto]

Russians don’t take a dump, son, without a plan.

[dfwgator]

I still think this is all Kabuki Theater to try to make Biden look like the hero for ‘staring down the Russians’.

[Thunder90]

But Russia is a Communist state!!!

[HombreSecreto]

And allow Russia to solidify their de facto control over Belarus, which could have been their plan, with Ukraine as the diversion.

[Reily]

And control over Kazakhstan which barely made the news here!

[HombreSecreto]

Bingo! I forgot about that as well.

[1Old Pro]

despite Macron's claims to have a de-escalation deal

Putin was never going to invade, so it's not too hard to negotiate not invading.