World

A Cornered Putin Is More Dangerous Than Ever


PARIS – President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in a speech Wednesday, was a reminder of how easily the war in Ukraine can spread, doubling down on the nuclear threat of He accused the West of seeking to “destroy” his country, and suggested that Ukrainians were merely pawns of the “collective Western military machine”.

In a videotaped speech to the nation, he effectively admitted that the war he started on February 24 had not turned out as he would have liked. By calling up some 300,000 reservists to fight on what he called a 620-mile front, and abandoning his original goal of demilitarizing and “demilitarizing” all of Ukraine, he conceded a what he always denied: the reality and growing resistance of a Ukrainian national unity.

But Putin is cornered as Putin at the most dangerous moment. It was one of the core lessons of his tough youth that he learned from the backlash of a rat he later herded up a flight of stairs in Leningrad.

His speech immediately reversed a war of aggression against a neighboring country into a war to defend “motherland”, a topic that resonated with Russians, and warned the West with unmistakable terminology – “this is not a hoax” – that this attempt to weaken or defeat Russia could cause a nuclear cataclysm.

Michel Eltchaninoff, French author of “Inside the Mind of Vladimir Putin.” “It was an aggressive war. Now it’s the Russian world’s defense against the West’s plot to divide. “

The “Russkiy Mir,” or imaginary world imbued with impregnable Russian nature, grew in size as Putin suggested in his speech that the country’s nuclear arsenal could be used to protect the country’s nuclear weapons. defend the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine occupied since the war began.

Putin said Russia would support upcoming referendums on the future of four regions in Ukraine. The method, described by President Emmanuel Macron this week of France as a “simulation” of the referendums, was used in Crimea in 2014 to justify the annexation of Russia.

It seems likely that the referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk to the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to the south – which the US and its Western allies have condemned as “fake” votes – will also lead to annexation. Russian import. At that point, a Ukrainian attack next month on the southern city of Kherson, captured by Russia at the start of the war, could, from Russia’s perspective, be seen as an attack on Russian soil. , justifying a nuclear riot.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive is currently underway in the Kherson area, and senior Ukrainian officials have vowed to recapture the city.

“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people,” Putin said.

His speech, which could of course be a hoax although he denied it, nevertheless presented the West with a dilemma that has existed in its policy since the beginning of the war. : How far can Ukraine’s military and logistical support – effectively everything without NATO troops on the ground – go without triggering a nuclear confrontation?

It is also an attempt to divide the West ahead of a winter that promises to be difficult, with inflation and rising energy costs. While the Biden administration has little interest in diplomacy at this stage, France, Germany and Italy are still seeking the “dialogue” with Russia that Mr. dialogue was judged necessary, he said, because “we seek peace.”



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