Posted on 02/23/2023 6:25:00 AM PST by Timber Rattler
At about 1am on February 24 last year, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, received a troubling phone call.
After spending months building up a more than 100,000-strong invasion force on the border with Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had given the go-ahead to invade.
The decision caught Lavrov completely by surprise. Just days earlier, the Russian president had polled his security council for their opinions on recognizing two separatist statelets in the Donbas, an industrial border region in Ukraine, at an excruciatingly awkward televised session — but had left them none the wiser about his true intentions.
(snip)
Later that day, several dozen oligarchs gathered at the Kremlin for a meeting arranged only the day before, aware that the invasion would trigger western sanctions that could destroy their empires. “Everyone was completely losing it,” says a person who attended the event.
While they waited, one of the oligarchs spied Lavrov exiting another meeting and pressed him for an explanation about why Putin had decided to invade. Lavrov had no answer: the officials he was there to see in the Kremlin had known less about it than he did.
Stunned, the oligarch asked Lavrov how Putin could have planned such an enormous invasion in such a tiny circle — so much so that most of the senior officials at the Kremlin, Russia’s economic cabinet and its business elite had not believed it was even possible.
“He has three advisers,” Lavrov replied, according to the oligarch. “Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great.”
Under Putin’s invasion plan, Russia’s troops were to seize Kyiv within a matter of days in a brilliant, comparatively bloodless blitzkrieg.
Instead, the war has proved to be a quagmire of historic proportions for Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
They did have a chance to exit the failed russian plan back in april 2022. Zelinsky and putin agreed to return the status quo.
Then victoria nuland, the US state dept and biden administration put the kabosh on that deal. They wanted putin out.
That’s a lie.
NATO has been public about their determination to enact regime change in Russia. With their puppet installed, the UN/WEF types can get their one world 'Reich' established. But Putin and the Russians object, so here we are.
In the Bloggers & Personal forum, on a thread titled Ukraine Fatigue Is Not an Option, grey_whiskers wrote: From The Saker Blog
https://thesaker.is/the-dire-significance-of-putins-feb-21-speech/
The Dire Significance of Putin’s Feb 21 Speech
16014 ViewsFebruary 22, 2023 10 Comments
by David Sant for the Saker blogOn Tuesday, February 21st President Putin gave a speech that was expected to be very significant. After it was delivered, however, most pundits said he didn’t say anything we didn’t already know. Most of them focused on his announcement of the withdrawal from the START II treaty. However, he said something far more significant.
An Existential Threat
What Mr. Putin said, when read through the lens of international law, should be chilling to the West.We would do well to remember that Mr. Putin majored in international law. His speech made a legal case against NATO.
First he listed, by my count, 30 different ways in which the Western nations have attacked Russia. These included the expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders, support of terrorists in Russia, economic war, terrorist sabotage of the Nordstream Pipeline, financing of the coup and war in Ukraine, directly assisting Ukraine to attack targets in Russia including Russia’s nuclear bombers, and plotting to destroy and partition Russia into pieces.
Nestled in the middle of these was an important statement.
“This means they plan to finish us once and for all. In other words, they plan to grow a local conflict into a global confrontation. This is how we understand it and we will respond accordingly, because this represents an existential threat to our country.”
Putin’s choice of words is extremely significant in light of Russian nuclear doctrine, which states that nuclear weapons could be used by Russia “in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
Among the 30 points of evidence of the American war on Russia, Mr. Putin listed several cases of American use of conventional weapons against Russian territory through Ukraine as the thinly veiled proxy, and stated that this represents an “existential threat to [the Russian State].”
What Mr. Putin has just told us is that the Kremlin now considers nuclear use condition #2 to be true, today.
This statement was accompanied by two related actions. The day before the speech Russia tested a Sarmat II ICBM. And at the end of the speech, Mr. Putin announced that Russia shall immediately withdraw from the START II treaty, which limits the number and range of their nuclear missiles.
These three statements and events together should tell the collective West that Russia has just said “Get off my porch!”, and cocked the forty-five.
This doesn’t mean that Russia is going to strike the USA tomorrow morning. But, we are definitely now teetering on the cliff’s edge of nuclear war.
(Excerpt, read the rest at the link)
Whatever you think on either side about the Ukraine, it’s not worth a nuclear war.
...btw. wasn’t it the US who persuaded the Ukraine to give up their nukes after the Soviet Union broke up?
Yeah, no.
putin is evil
and stupid:
“Under Putin’s invasion plan, Russia’s troops were to seize Kyiv within a matter of days in a brilliant, comparatively bloodless blitzkrieg.”
Ukraine is Putin’s Viet Nam
Your use of a blogger’s screed published in “The Saker” shows real desperation in your search for support of unfounded speculation.
Blitzkrieg did not work. Went back to the good old circle them and grind the meat. Russians are not original but they are Russian. Ask Hitler or Napoleon or many others. These people are animals and you best not pull their tails. Only idiots pull a Russian tail unless she is the hottest in the bar. Then prepare. All Hell is going to break loose and you may need paramedics you can brag to in the morning either way. She beat you to a pulp or... welp. paramedics had to be called... she beat you to a pulp with a smile and a happy ending. The Slavs on both sides are tough as hell. I hated travelling in that part of the world. Scary.
Russians are tough to beat at home, but they don’t play well on the road.
That may be true, but we know Biden is evil and stupid. That makes for a dangerous combination.
Planting the rainbow flag - colors
On the Kremlin - red square
Lib jihad - shariah - Taliban - alqueda dreams
Hopefully someone in this conflict listened to what Putin actually said and will respond wisely; this war of attrition is draining NATO, not Russia.
“...Russia’s troops were to seize Kyiv within a matter of days in a brilliant, comparatively bloodless.”
Which failed miserably, thanks in part to Chinese tires apparently unable to deal with Ukraine winter driving conditions. There were also plenty of other reasons, including Valenskyy’s failure to cut and run when offered an escape plan by the US.
I wonder how much Russia will trust the reliability of other Chinese aid offers, especially possible weapons?
Picket’s charge
That doesn’t end - stop
I haven’t seen anyone on FR ‘screaming’ about sanctions. Maybe I don’t hang out on the same threads you do.
Zelensky was also told to flee to Poland as soon as the invasion started by Biden, Macron, Scholz and Johnson. Zelensky knew how well that Government in Abstentia thing worked out for Poland in WW2 and refused their demands. Putin was assured by that crowd that Zelensky would flee and wouldn’t have to fight after Zelensky had fled Kyiv. And we know how that worked out.
Putin’s troops brought their parade uniforms with them but had no food. And Yanukovich was waiting in Belarus for his grand return.
Zelenskyy has done an amazing job of holding it all together given the level of opposition from Russia and others (often much more covertly). His successful career as an entertainer, has certainly helped him in his dealing effectively with the media.
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