Posted on 09/13/2022 11:10:11 AM PDT by dennisw
Vladimir Putin’s definitive quality as president — his refusal ever to back down — helped him project Russian global power for years. But facing repeated setbacks in a catastrophic war in Ukraine, his inflexible approach is looking more like his great flaw.
As Russian forces fled in disarray in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region Saturday — dressing as civilians, stealing bicycles, abandoning tons of military equipment and ammunition — Putin sounded strikingly tone deaf as he opened a giant new Ferris wheel in Moscow. “There is nothing like that in Europe,” he boasted via video-link.
Within hours, the Ferris wheel had broken down, and tickets had to be refunded. Repairing what’s broken about Putin’s war strategy and, by extension, his presidency and reputation, will be far harder.
Ukraine’s northeastern counteroffensive was underway even as Putin, at a conference in the Far East days earlier, insisted that Russia had “lost nothing and will lose nothing” in the war, a remark that seemed oblivious to Russia’s repeated setbacks and shockingly high casualties, and ignorant of what was transpiring on the battlefield.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that the war “will continue until the goals that have been set are achieved.” What those goals are, however, is difficult to know. Putin’s initial goal, of capturing Kyiv and topping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, failed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
At this point, settle for a truly neutral, fairly conducted election in the Donbass and in Crimea, with both sides agreeing to abide by the results. And that’s all.
“Refuses to lose”
Who doesn’t?
His inflexible approach is similar to Brandon’s?
That would be both reasonable and logical.
Therefore it won’t happen.
L
At this point, settle for a truly neutral, fairly conducted election in the Donbass and in Crimea, with both sides agreeing to abide by the results. And that’s all.
—
Sounds logical. Too bad humans are rarely logical.
RE: At this point, settle for a truly neutral, fairly conducted election in the Donbass and in Crimea,
I’ve been saying this from sa early as March this year. The only problem is how to make it “truly neutral and fairly conducted” as you said. It’s easier said than done. They’ve tried doing this before in the the Donbas region and few accepted the results.
Also, there is the issue opf the Ukranian Constitution which staes that the Donbas region and Crimea are Ukranian territory. They’ll have to amend the constitution if the results in say, Crimea, point to the residents wanting to go back to mother Russia ( as I suspect a fair result will be ).
Nukes coming in 3..2..1
“We’ll meet again...”
I'm not sure that Crimea, if given a choice between associating with Ukraine and Europe, or Russia and china, would definitely choose Russia. Perhaps before the war, but I think now might be a different story.
In any case, I think a referendum is going to be part of this thing no matter when it ends, so might as well can see that at the outset. But I also don't think that Russian demands that Ukraine can never join NATO, etc should be respected either. If anything, Russia's own actions have perfectly validated exactly why Russia's neighbors have legitimate reason to be part of a defensive alliance.
> settle for a truly neutral, fairly conducted election in the Donbass and in Crimea, <
Better if Russia had to purchase those lands after a successful election, with gold and/or energy. Ukraine needs to be thrown a bone. After all, Ukrainian tanks didn’t cross into Russia. It was the other way around.
I have assumed since the beginning of the war that Putin had bad news from his doctor, hence the push to secure his historical legacy by returning Ukraine to the fold. So some of the usual political considerations don’t apply to him.
Still, his regime won’t survive losing this war. If he orders a nuclear strike I think his own people will remove him from power. And to introduce nuclear or chemical weapons will invite direct NATO involvement. That might actually be good in his eyes, since losing to NATO preserves his dignity whereas losing to the Ukrainians will be humiliating.
He’s in a box. I’m not sure how this ends. Maybe as you say an election under international supervision is a way out. The Ukrainians won’t like it after everything they’ve been through, and preserving Russia’s dignity is pretty low on their list of priorities.
Weeeeee-haaaaa
At this point, settle for a truly neutral, fairly conducted election in the Donbass and in Crimea, with both sides agreeing to abide by the results. And that’s all.
That’s a real bad precedent to set and how we could lose states to Mexico.
> That’s a real bad precedent to set [territory elections] and how we could lose states to Mexico. <
Good point. The West is all for self-determination, as long as it doesn’t apply to them. Try it in the United States for example, and Billy Sherman will come knocking at your door.
Obviously, one key issue would be limiting the geographic area covered by the referendum. No Greater Crimea, and no inclusion of a land brisge to Russia. And even in the Donbass, you'd have to have some pretty intense negotiations over exactly how that would work, whether it would be all or nothing or by regions within the Donbass, etc..
Just trying to be realistic in terms of something that might be acceptable to both sides in the end. I don't think Ukraine is going to be able to recover Crimea militarily, and fighting in the Donbass is likely to continue for a long time without some form of referendum.
That makes it handy for a false flag nuke attack, that will cancel elections.
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