What's up, Vladimir?
You're looking a bit megamaniacal. Need some Vitamin D maybe?
Everyone’s wondering what’s the plan, Stan? And several have weighed in.
Is Putin a Christian conservative? Dalton Delan thinks so. He’s guessing that Vlad is motivated by a fight against Western immorality. I’m indifferent on that point. After all, Hitler was a Christian. Among other people with an odd religious bent, there’s Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate, Jerry Falwell, Jr and a host of other grifters, adulterers and pedophiles. The label’s become meaningless. Someone’s religion is as important to me as their hat. If it looks good, I’ll compliment and encourage it. If not, well, they’re entitled to their taste. They aren’t entitled to their war crimes, genocide or their wet dreams of Armageddon.
Elliot Abrams, on the Council of Foreign Relations, the discredited neocon who advised Reagan (who pulled US troops out of Lebanon after terrorists killed 241 US troops in a barracks bombing and was funding an illegal war in Nicaragua while illegally selling missiles to Iran), then went on to advise George HW and George W, (who launched two wars on Iraq, among other miserable ventures) is blathering on about Putin’s strategic errors while predicting a swift Ukraine win. I’m not certain why his expertise is still valued at all.
No, I think the guy closest to Putin’s thinking is Bill Browder.
”NEW YORK — A trillion dollars: That’s how much money famed investor Bill Browder believes Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs have stolen from the Russian people since the fall of the Soviet Union.
“And that was money that was supposed to be spent on health care and education, roads and services,” Browder said at a Manhattan event to celebrate the publication of his second book, “Freezing Order,” which chronicles how he became a Putin nemesis as a result of his attempts to expose Kremlin corruption. Those efforts led to the death of Browder’s attorney Sergei Magnitsky, who was tortured in a Russian prison and whose name is affixed to sanctions bills passed by Congress.”
His advice?
“Everyone tries to think about Russia as a sovereign state and Putin as a leader acting in national interest,” Browder said to Yahoo News, describing that outlook as a fundamental misunderstanding. “You think you can apply political science to Russia. You need to apply criminal science. You need to be a criminologist to understand Russia. People don’t go into government to serve the country. They go into government to steal money.”
The article is worth your review to see where he’s coming from.
He’s harsh on the Western bankers, real estate brokers, and other enablers of Putin’s kleptocracy. Money laundering for a tyrant out of greed just isn’t a good look.
”Sanctions are one way to fight Putin. Weapons are another. “The Ukrainians say they need a no fly-zone,” he pointed out, rejecting the idea that such a move would immediately lead to nuclear war. “At what point,” he wondered, “do you finally stand up to Russia?” “
But what he didn’t say or imply is where my beliefs lie. Putin again has warned NATO that if Finland and Sweden get closer to joining that alliance, he’s open to using a nuclear weapon in response.
Browder doesn’t think he’ll go that far. I believe he might. I think he believes a nuclear holocaust won’t happen if he just uses one or two. Nuclear chess, he’s playing. And I believe he’ll do it. Still, like Browder, I don’t think any benefit can come from backing away because of that threat.
Standing up to bullies is the only way bullies have ever been stopped. So far, he’s shipped more han a dozen generals to prison and called in the one guy known for his butchery in battle, in Syria. I expect to see things escalate quickly on Easter or shortly after.
But don’t despair, even though despair is pragmatism now. There still our ways to save the world from his ilk.