Putin’s War Becomes Putin’s Food Crisis
"The problem of exporting grain from Ukraine does not exist," Vladimir Putin said Friday, during remarks carried by Russian state television.
He was lying, as he's wont to do from time to time. The "problem of exporting grain from Ukraine" absolutely exists. And he should know, because he is that problem.
Specifically, Putin is impeding the export of millions of tons of grain, including wheat and corn, by blockading the country's ports. In addition, Russia has reportedly seized grain in territ
As a narcissistic sociopath (or is he merely a psychopath?) Putin has got where he is today as the Kleptocratic, autocratic crime boss of Russia by being a compulsive liar, and expert propagandist.
This, I think, gets at the heart of the problem. He seems ready and willing to throw away (basically overnight) a kleptocracy built over decades in pursuit of a revanchist fever dream with religious overtones. While fully acknowledging that Ukraine is a special obsession, and while conceding that the Donbas question needed to be settled eventually, this entire episode seems very haphazard and extraordinarily reckless. I hate to play the lazy “He’s gone crazy” card, because that’s just the mainstream media talking point, but this thing where he’s writing histories and treatises and talking about “drug addicts” in Kyiv — I mean, it’s hard to square that with the guy we can all go and watch give tongue-in-cheek, deliberately nefarious interviews to Western media outlets on YouTube. He does, in fact, seem to be at least a little bit less composed than he was several years ago. A simple, non-conspiratorial explanation for that might just be: Well, he is gettin’ old, after all.
To a degree, I think the explanation is that the revanchist fever dream with religious overtones animated his kleptocracy building ways i.e. they were a mean to an end.
Seeing that end move further and further away, he either lost patience or indeed got old/sick/went into cognitive decline.
It’s a bit like Trump. You can see his racism and narcissism in early interviews with Oprah etc. But, back then, he could compose full sentences and hide his true feelings a bit better. As he aged, he’s gotten significantly worse. Though, funnily, more popular as a result. It’s like talking to a part of the electorate gets easier with senility and very very short sentences of dubious grammatical structure and little logical sense…
Putin is a little man wearing boots that are too big for him. Hubris, nemesis, catharsis.
There are two possibilities here-Putin goes (dead or a buyout) or unlimited war. Sorry, that’s what I think we’re looking at. He wants things he’s not entitled to.
H-Man, he is simply playing the cards he has. Starve the world and blame it on the Nazi’s. The problem is there a fewer cards being dealt that permit him to maneuver. To wit, Macron suggesting Ukraine should not humiliate Russia which is a topic for another day. Once the 12 mile armament arrives, the Russian body count is going to increase and those cards are going to be ugly. Either the Russians wake up or he continues to drive his country into an abyss.
Eventually, someone/group inside of Russia will likely remove Putin – as there is a lot of money to be made- once Putin is not a road block to their riches.
Replace Putin, ask for forgiveness from the world, memorialize Crimea and a few other small regions that were mostly Russian occupied before this war- then recommence with the selling of oil and natural gas.
Putin is exceedingly aware of that risk and seems to have taken no ends of precautions against a palace coup/assassination attempts.
He even seems to have murdered a fair few of his erstwhile buddies : oligarchs/siloviki are suiciding at alarming rates…
Sounds like the beginning of the end of Putin.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
In Geopolitics there are usually Two distinct differing sides to every altercation . When issues become as they have at this point in Ukraine information become Propagandized by both sides . Ideally a Free Press and strong and courageous Main Stream Media could make this process a little better and easier to Resolve . Tragically this is not currently the case .
From his endorsement as president Putin maintained secrecy during controversy while rising from the apartment bombings that killed hundreds.
He’s as diplomatic as he needs to be while keeping the secret in services. His familiarity with the struggling post ussr Russia in the 90s has bought him more time than expected, but cognitive questions aside, you don’t have a record like his for being the narcissists we see in western social media.