If there is something physically or mentally wrong with Putin. His speech earlier this week was, to put it mildly, over the top, even for him.
And now this…
Russia has threatened its close Arctic neighbours Sweden and Finland with ‘military consequences’ if they join NATO.
It came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensified today after a night of fighting in the capital of Kyiv especially.
Sweden and Finland are the two closest countries to Russia in the Arctic Circle.
Full article, HERE.
The ghost of Simo Häyhä is muttering and stirring at this, and calling for his ‘brothers’ to take up arms again. The Winter War with Russia in 1939 may have gotten Russia 9% of Finland, but the cost in manpower was horrendous and also caused Russia to be expelled from the League of Nations.
And Sweden is no slouch at winter warfare either…
This kind of crap is what makes me wonder what is going on in Putin’s head.
Putin’s recent aggressiveness might be due to organic disease. But it’s equally possible that he’s facing some challenges to his authority from Russia’s old school power brokers. War is ALWAYS a useful tool when a politician is facing domestic threats.
I hear so many things about what motivates him from so many camps.
I frankly don’t know who to believe.
I know who NOT to believe.
The guy who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania when he’s not in Delaware.
+1
People can become irrational, when their income is threatened. If I had to guess, Putin is facing a money problem, needs resources, and is going all in. While it may seem to be improbable, my bet is Putin is just another puppet for those with enough wealth to determine world politics.
Is he reaching the end of his usefulness?
If there’s a Hill/Bill somewhere in his circle of “friends”, he’ll have an accident… soon.
We forget that the primary trait of Russia is paranoia at our own peril. The only countries Russia has attacked were the ones threatening to bring NATO military power directly to Russia’s borders. (Or should I say more, because there are already 4 NATO members adjoining Russia.)
Remember when NATO (really, the US) attacked Russian ally Serbia, creating the Kosovo enclave? Shortly after that, Russia attacked NATO candidate member Georgia, occupying about half the country and creating separate enclaves. Tit for tat applies to international relations.
That seems sensible to me. We wouldn’t have allowed Mexico or Canada to join the Warsaw Pact back in the day. We attacked and occupied Iraq for what they might do someday. We involved ourselves in Russian client state Syria’s civil war, for reasons? How does that look from the Russian perspective?
Sorry, there are 5 NATO countries which have land borders with Russia. Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria share the Black Sea, while the Bering Strait separates Russia from the USA.
Russia has always wanted a buffer between it and the west; that buffer is disappearing, which makes them feel threatened.
Additionally, Russia is losing population and has a shrinking economy, which means a shrinking military. I wonder if he is being pushed internally and this is both a means to focus externally and a hopeful push for more people and industry?
Ukraine makes a bunch of critical military parts for Russia; if those were cut off they would be in trouble.
Didn’t NATO promise not to expand east if Russia allowed East and West Germany to unite? I have a dim memory of that. And now, NATO countries are on it’s border or close by.
Didn’t Obama’s admin interfere in Ukrainian politics? Was that the Orange thing?
I recently read about a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church that our state department was either influencing or supporting. Why?
I am really only sure that the same folks that despise America’s borders and freedoms, are reporting favorably on the Ukrainians getting automatic weapons and defending their borders. It’s cloud cuckoo land. I’m wondering if the news is looking for ANYTHING to report on besides the flailing admin in DC.
There does seem to be desperation in some of the threats he is making. Bringing down the ISS, for instance. I’m sure there are ways to destabilize orbit and bring it down, but why?? Poking other neighbors just doesn’t make sense. Maybe he’s received a recent terminal diagnosis and he’s making one last big play to secure his legacy.
All- Good points, and no good answers here… sigh
Hey Old NFO;
The invasion of the Ukraine isn’t going as planned, Putin expected his Russians to steamroll the Ukrainians, but it ain’t working and now Russia is a pariah on the world stage. He figured that possession is 9/10th of the law and well he don’t have possession and he is losing the war of words and marketing and Putin is running Russia as a head of a cabal of super predators, and now his recent missteps show weaknesses to the other super predators of his cabal who have a lot of money tied up all over the place. This is coup stuff, so he is reacting out to show “No Fear, no weakness” to keep his spot as the top dog. Remember Khrushchev? After the Cuba Missile crisis, he was gone shortly afterwards for making the Soviet Union look bad. Sure they ain’t commie pinko’s anymore, but they are still Russians and the tenets of Marxism Leninism hasn’t removed that part of their culture and character. Just a though through my coffee soaked brain.
I suspect all of these ideas figure into the calculus. I would throw something else into the mix-I think the guy is starting to believe his own marketing.
As Bob notes, the invasion isn’t going to plan, and according to news this morning our boy Vlad has ordered an escalation of Russia’s nuclear posture. Could be a bluff, but betting that way and being wrong will be a bad day. I guess this is how my parents felt during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Don’t you find it odd that Putin sits at the end of a very long table when meeting people?
What’s he scared of, displaying his towering 5ft 8in height, or does he distrust Sputnik V, the home grown Covid jab?
Just asking.
A late family friend, who was Finnish in extraction, left the U.S. and went to Finland to fight in The Winter War. He spent a
month in combat and said, later, “That was enough.”
He ran a Lahti Saloranta (LMG) in the war.
And some kind of pistol (possibly a BHP).
He used to quote a Finnish proverb, “A Russian’s a Russian
if you fry him in butter.” Been thinking about that lately
for some reason…
Condoleeza Rice appears to agree with OldNFO regarding something happening to Putin: https://youtu.be/CVcKx5-mZx4
I posted this on another site (www.frugalsquirrels.com) –
If – and this is a big ‘if’ – the invasion continues to go as poorly as it has in the first few days, Putin’s supposedly invincible army’s performance against a much smaller opponent will be an embarrassment to him. At some point, his ‘inner circle’ may decide that between the poor showing, and their personal financial losses caused by the sanctions he may have to go.
If the invasion grinds down into more of a slog, someone in Putin’s circle may implement the Makarov Protocol and put someone else in charge…..
Does anybody have links to any coverage that isn’t ultimately dependent upon social media or press releases from officials on either side? Like a reputable correspondent in the field? Most of the MSM coverage is ultimately tracking back to either combing social media or repeating press releases.
All- Thanks for the comments. I’m actually worried about him going nuclear after raising the alert stage for their nuke systems. This is not good!
Putin means whore. Bitch I understand can be a synonym for prostitute.
I’m somewhat inclined to ask that the bitch launch the missiles and bombers.
After seeing his level of funding for logistic, and suppression of enemy air defense capabilities, I have doubts as to how well he has funded avionics, fueling, and warheads.
The main thing against, after the 2020 level of evidence for electoral fraud, I’m no longer certain that the populations of American and European cities have it coming to them.
Nuclear war has long been wildly overhyped. We may be overdue for having it out, and finding out that it isn’t so bad after all. America’s readiness state may be terrible, but I’m not sure that the impairments will matter /that/ much.
Sure, we aren’t in a position to ‘pull up trouble by the roots’ after a nuclear victory, to secure a lasting real victory and peace.
I’m still very inclined towards “Bitch, launch.”
We’ve been pandering to the cultural psychopathy of the Russians for decades.
I apparently have a sharp limit of how interested I am in trying to manage the eccentricities of other people who are crazy. It seems like the lunatics closer to home have used up a lot of that. There really is a point where, objectively, even certainty of death is better than continuing to live as the victim of a criminal madman. Sitting and taking it, for fear of death, is bad for the soul. Me concluding that /now/ ‘enough is enough’ could simply be my own crazy.
But who would he nuke, seriously? Kyiv? Very dumb.
The rest of the world? Very dumb.
Someone else? Who?
Putin likes power, period. Making the world glow does not move that way.
I do worry about an AD.
RAS
I’m not sure Putin’s still all there any longer, mentally speaking.
NATO’s reported to have gone to DEFCON 2 for only the third time ever.
watched an exchange between putin and his security chief. it looked much like a peon talking to the godfather. he was visibly shaking when putin admonished him like a child for speaking against the invasion. the godfather has no connection to reality b/c nobody dared tell him. the ceo of gasprom allegedly committed suicide last night. related?
Good grief! Y’all projecting Biden onto Putin.
Crazy Putin model has no need for projecting Biden onto Putin.
He’s a Russian with formative years in the Soviet era, his early adulthood was as an intelligence officer, he is now a politician who can surround himself with sycophants, and his ‘management style’ seems to be totalitarian brute.
There is a plausible path by which he could have blinded himself to the objective reality of specific Russian military capabilities. This could feasibly result in miscalculating a military adventure.
This without a physical issue causing mental impairment.
Being able to hold the position Putin has held does not automatically grant him skill in unrelated areas, or ability beyond human limits. Winning six hands of poker may give you the confidence to play a seventh, but it doesn’t mean that you have the ability to certainly win the seventh.
It is reasonable to ask if Putin is stuck in a lethal pattern of miscalculation.
Biden is far from the only seriously crazy Democrat. A lot of them don’t have the excused of dementia. Trudeau seems to be much too young for senile dementia, and seems to have a similar flavor of crazy. It is reasonable to ask if Putin could also be that flavor of crazy.
It’s also possible that Putin was lied to by his own people on the actual state of military readiness. This often happens in strong man situations, because the consequences of failure are things like “losing everything you value” and “death by AA guns”.
This is almost certainly part of what happened.
Putin’s totalitarian aspirations finally biting him in the rear on one of his military adventures.