Tag: Pres. Putin

  • Putin Orders Russian Nuclear Forces on Alert Status…

    Putin Orders Russian Nuclear Forces on Alert Status…

    Putin Orders Russian Nuclear Forces on Alert Status as His Ukrainian Adventure Stalls

    Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to up the ante on his Ukraine adventure on Sunday by ordering Russian nuclear forces onto alert status.

    Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.

    Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defense minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put nuclear forces in a “special regime of combat duty.”

    “Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in televised comments.

    My assessment:

    • The invasion of Ukraine is not going well. The Russian campaign plan seemed to be based on a series of what turned out to be flawed assumptions. They assumed the Ukrainian armed forces would be ineffectual if they did not totally melt away; they assumed Ukrainian feeling of pan-Slavism would see them flock to the side of the Russians; they assumed the Ukrainian government would be on the first plane out of the country on Wednesday, and they assumed that the entire affair would be wrapped up in 48-hours. None of that happened (Putin Shows Signs of Panic, as He Calls on Ukraine Military to Mutiny. In fact, the Ukrainians’ very clever propaganda campaign has succeeded in making President Zelensky into a heroic figure (Ukrainian President Zelensky Tells Russia to Pound Sand — and Hits Joe Biden’s Impotence).
    • The second round of sanctions announced yesterday caught Putin by surprise. Those sanctions which impede the ability of the Russian central bank to draw on gold and foreign currency reserves will become very serious in the next few weeks. The sanctions against Putin, himself, while a null-set economically hit him in his most vulnerable area, that would be his ego.
    • The outpouring of popular pro-Ukraine activity across Europe, like pulling a soccer tournament from Russia, street demonstrations, most of Western Europe closing its airspace to Russian aircraft, etc., caught Putin by surprise. As this exercise was supposed to showcase Russia’s power, it has backfired spectacularly in making Russia a pariah in Europe.
    https://twitter.com/Mike_Eckel/status/1497920840431808515?s=20

    Unlike the United States, which tends to observe treaties, the requirements of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty have largely been ignored by Russia. As a result, Russia retains battlefield nuclear weapons, and their open-source doctrine says they believe they can use those with impunity because the US does not have comparable weapons, and escalation would be to an ICMB exchange.

    At this point, I think we should all look at this order for what it is. Putin is on the verge of being humiliated, and he’s trying to return what has become a widespread governmental and popular backlash to the Ukraine invasion to a battlespace he controls. If the war persists for another week, which will mean the Russian Army in Ukraine is on the cusp of a spectacular failure, if not outright collapse, the calculus changes. February 27, 2022 https://redstate.com/streiff/2022/02/27/putin-orders-russian-nuclear-forces-on-alert-status-as-his-ukrainian-adventure-stalls-n528892

  • Putin Challenges Biden…

    Putin Challenges Biden…

    Putin Challenges Biden to a Battle He Knows Biden Can’t Accept

    Yesterday, I wrote how Joe Biden’s likely puffed up comments about Vladimir Putin may have led to an international incident.

    During an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Biden agreed that Putin was a “killer” and he claimed that in 2011 when he met with Putin that he told Putin he was soulless.

    Now, we doubted Biden’s story because it sounded like it was much like some of his other stories about Corn Pop, being arrested in South Africa, and marching for civil rights. Also because it wasn’t consistent with what he was saying in 2012 when he mocked Mitt Romney for saying we should be concerned about Russia.

    But in response, the Russians recalled their ambassador and said they were reconsidering relations with the United States, that the relations were “under threat of collapse.” So basically Biden triggered an international incident and a “pissing contest” with Putin with his puffery.

    There’s a difference between demonstrating strength and throwing out pissing contests. The problem with pissing contests is that sometimes it requires you to ante up and if you can’t back it up, you shouldn’t throw it out there.

    Now Putin has responded to Biden.

    First, he wished him “good health” a couple of times, the way Michael Corleone wished his brother Fredo good health.

    Then he spoke about Biden agreeing that he was a “killer” in the interview, Putin’s response was Biden was projecting, “He who calls names, is called that himself.”

    But Putin then showed he’s pretty aware of Biden’s cognitive issues and responded to the gauntlet that Biden threw down, challenging him to an open and live debate.

    https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange/status/1372596105272307721?s=20
    https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1372631922476732416?s=20

    Putin challenged Biden to an open discussion, on one condition, that it be live, online, without any lags, in direct discussion, saying it could be interesting for Russians, Americans, and other people. That of course is his way of saying, yes, I know your issues. He said he could do it as early as Friday because he wanted to go away for the weekend.

    The White House’s response? Joe Biden is “quite busy.” Having thrown the gauntlet down, he then responds weakly. He started a pissing contest that there was no way he couldn’t finish and then backed away. Today, he also called Kamala Harris “President Harris,” as my colleague Sister Toldjah wrote earlier. Not a good thing to show weakness to foreign leaders like Putin, it gives them more ideas that they can get away with things. People remember the strength that John Kennedy showed during the Missile Crisis. What they don’t remember is that it was effectively Kennedy’s weakness that precipitated it, to begin with, because Nikita Khrushchev judged him to be weak at their meeting.
    By: Nick Arama – March 18, 2021 https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/03/18/putin-challenges-biden-to-a-battle-he-knows-biden-cant-accept-n345856

    Excerpts from an earlier report:

    Joe Biden’s comments may just have sparked an international incident.

    In an interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired this morning on “Good Morning America,” Biden referred to Vladmir Putin as a “killer” and then claimed that he told Putin in 2011 to his face that he was soulless, a claim that we observed in a earlier story to likely be one of Joe’s exaggerated stories that didn’t sound like it had a lot of truth in it. Sounded like his effort to throw down with Corn Pop with the chain. The reality was he was attacking Mitt Romney in 2012 for saying that we should be concerned about Russia.

    On top of that, the U.S. intelligence community also released a report today claiming that Putin was behind an influence operation in the 2020 election aimed at hurting Biden and helping Trump. The Kremlin has denied it.

    Can we say shades of the same bull Democrats tried in 2016 once again?
    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/03/17/biden-comments-may-have-sparked-international-incident-russia-withdraws-its-ambassador-n345284

    Comment: Biden appears to be working on a Nobel Peace Prize /s

    See Also: Faces