On a nightly talk show this week, one of the Kremlin’s top propagandists decided to quote Vladimir Putin.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1414190
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1414190
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Escalating to de-escalate.
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Those who can, do. Those who can’t, threaten. Someone needs to let Putin know that he is starting to sound desperate.
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Rhetoric to smooth the path for the next wave of conscription. Have people started fleeing russia, yet?
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Pathetic Putin Potemkin Putsch
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Calm down folks. Don’t interpret the rhetoric of distant cultures as you would your own. Putin is not going to kill himself. In Russia “big talk” is much like the crap Trump spewed. Words intended on self aggrandizement not purpose. Check out Khrushchev’s “we will bury you”…there’s nothing new or real in this.
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Even their threats sound hallow. Amazing to see what a sham Russian might has turned out to be.
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Vladimir needs to calm down with a nice hot cup of polonium tea, and maybe a scented candle.
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lol. Maybe he has. I think I smell the scent of desperation.
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It was never anything to yak about. Russia is big in landmass and borscht in everything else. They would still be in the 1800’s if it weren’t for what it has stolen from the West. Someday America will get a clue…and hopefully the EU will as well and realize the clue to ending the Russian nuisance is making it’s people confront how small, phony and insignificant they are in the world’s stage. Forget dealing with their puppet show government.
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Biden and our allies know exactly how to trigger Putin. They calmly but firmly continue to ruin his plans and show him for the empty loser he is.
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It does sound as if they are starting to prepare their people for upcoming deprivations as Putin’s folly enters a new phase.
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“…Putin might use the May 9 Victory in World War Two holiday to declare that Russia is “now at war with the world’s Nazis…”
So I guess this should keep you up at night if you’re a Republican.
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If Putin wanted WWIII, he’d have bombed Rzeszów airport in Poland, where all those howitzers and javelins and other stuff is arriving multiple times daily for offloading and transport into Ukraine. Wouldn’t need to pull out nukes or anything, legitimate military target.
That he keeps talking but never does is the clearest evidence that the last thing he wants to do is step over the line and have America directly bring the people and the boomsticks and flying machines to the party.
So no, no amount of Dr. Strangelove discussion is actually going anywhere but a continued grind away at the front in the Donbas.
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There’s another factor here that I think is being overlooked. This Holy War rhetoric started as Ukraine began attacking military depots inside Russia. We have reports of stunned and terrified Russians who witnessed missiles flying over their villages – essentially melting down over the sheer surprise of this.
The “Holy War, they’re attacking us, existential threat time” is indeed disturbing but (as Russians begin seeing actual war stuff happening around them) it might also be the only way Putin knows to keep deceiving Russians about what Russia is doing
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And why is that a job America must do? The Russian people have to want change and living with the consequences of their leaders epic miscalculation might move them along.
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I guess Putin could be using the hardliners the same way Marine Le Pen used the even-further-right Eric Zemmour to look more reasonable by comparison…
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Talk about nuclear weapons designed to intimidate opponents and soothe Russians. I suspect the “we go to heaven” won’t be taken kindly by most in Russia.
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Maybe I’ve read too much Dostoevsky, Chekhov, et al. Russians are different. It is through suffering that redemption and glory are attained. Like some Catholics you might know on steroids. How to deal with this kind of psychology in an aggressor?
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At least as likely to be preparing their public for a nonsensical May 9 declaration of victory. Russia strong! NATO weak! Crimea safe from Ukrainian genocide!
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