Posted on 10/09/2022 3:59:15 PM PDT by Timber Rattler
“Early retirement” is a strange way to describe a 44-year-old’s acceptance of a new government role, but for Mikk Marran, Estonia’s spymaster, it feels a lot like that. As of next month he will no longer helm Välisluureamet, the Baltic state’s foreign intelligence service, which, long before Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine, was at the forefront of assessing the threats and capabilities of a resurgent and revanchist Russia.
(snip)
According to one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence officer, “Estonia punches far above its weight on Russian affairs. The respect for Marran and his service in the U.S. intelligence community is quite palpable.” He is regularly invited to officials’ homes when he visits the United States, a privilege not accorded to directors of other allied services.
(snip)
The more Russia is defeated, the louder the chorus of voices grows advocating Ukraine negotiate the terms of its conditional surrender. Everyone from Elon Musk to Pope Francis has lately urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to enter into negotiations with Moscow. But the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians are against any ceasefire that entails giving their land to an invading force that they’re pushing farther back every day.
Marran cautions that advising Ukraine to enter peace negotiations is strategically backward. “It is our job as intel services to give correct information assessments to our leadership. And our assessment is that we shouldn’t push Ukraine to any negotiations because that will send a message to Putin that things will go his way, and he will start slicing the sausage.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What will they win?
Lots and lots of US $$$?
It sounds like a challenge to Putin to go “all in” and really take the gloves off and turn the lights out across Ukraine.
Their freedom from the evil that is Russia, that is what they will will. The future of Ukraine is to th west not the backward Russia.
th = the
Comrade Putin has no gloves anymore.
I’m not so sure. I think once we, as in US citizens stop this at the voting booth in November they’ll have the opportunity to achieve the original goal. It’s a conflict many have only heard one side of, or believe only one sides propaganda.
Didn’t I hear a time or two that propaganda wins wars???
How will the war end?
“Ukraine is going to win,” Marran says without hesitation. “They have to win because for Ukraine, it’s an independence war. It’s not just a regional conflict, and that’s why they are highly motivated.”
Maybe he can tell us who’s going to win the Super Bowl also.
Tomorrow night’s winning Texas Lotto numbers would be nice too, if he has a minute.
War is a fickle thing and the fortunes of war often turn on small things. I will agree that Ukraine does seem too have the upper hand now. I would not agree that the winner can yet be clearly determined.
This is a war of logistics, sources of supply, the lines that transport them and their alignment with the situation on the ground is and will continue to be a critical factor. The Russian command structure does not yet appear to have learned that lesson.
Deep State he may be, to the extent, probably, that Estonia has a Deep State. Its a very small country. From experience, however, small countries tend to be much less corrupt and more transparent than big ones.
Ukraine can win only if Russia quits (see Vietnam). Russia ‘wins’ if they go nuclear (the West won’t respond in kind) but the long-term repercussions are unknowable. Likely an indefinite Iraq/Afghanistan.
I am certain that the Russian military understands the logistics lesson, and etc. very well, on paper. I am certain that they have a horde of staff officers that know very well how things should be. Their real problems derive from baked-in institutional deficiencies.
Its one thing to tell your boss that X is wrong. That is easy. Your boss may even agree with you. Its quite another thing to change the incentive structure that controls your bosses behavior such that he will take a risk and try to fix X.
The only question is who much more territory do the Russians have to take before Ukraine will surrender and leave them the hell alone.
“Win what?”
The Kremlin of course.
After 105 years the Russian civil war will finally conclude victoriously for the White Russians. The atheist mongol criminal horde will finally be defeated and expelled.
what US dollars? US has no dollars in treasury. We are now the biggest debtor nation in human history. We are more broke than my B-I-L who has already naxxed out 7 credit cards.
We are now spending Billion dollars every day just to pay interest on out national debt.
Who’s “Deep State” are you talking about?
I presume you mean the warmongering Russian Imerialist Deep State?
No one in the world is contesting the fact that neo-soviet Russia has indeed invaded Ukraine - a sovereign free country.
There are zero Ukrainian forces in Russia, but there about half a million Russian invading forces in Ukraine.
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