It’s a confusing time if you’re living in Russia. Or the Ukraine. Because Vladimir Putin pulled the trigger on his plan to invade. And the effects could linger for decades.
Neither country will soon recover. And it’s quite possible that Putin went too far out on the limb. Nearly 2,000 protesters opposed to Putin’s actions were already arrested. Russia isn’t the kind of place where you get away with making picket signs and chanting in the streets.
Fox News reports:
“The people who are taking to the streets know that they will likely end up in jail,” she told Fox News Digital. “My view is this is going to be an extremely unpopular war in Russia even for people who are pro-Putin.”
Putin’s approval rating stood at 69% in January, but that number is misleading given that he has constrained alternative political choices, she said.
Historically, Russia and Ukraine don’t have a level of hostility that would justify this violent incursion. Ukraine has elected pro-Russian leaders and the two countries consider themselves more like brothers than enemies, Herrera said.
“There is a lot of interethnic hospitality,” the scholar explained. “Images of Ukrainian families, Ukrainians being killed, your average Russian family is not going to be okay with that.”
Since the attack began Wednesday, more than 57 people have been killed and 169 wounded. In addition to sanctions, there is significant social fallout over the invasion, with Aeroflot Airlines banned from flying to the UK, and the Union of European Football Associations pulling the Champions League final from Saint Petersburg.
Is World War III around the corner?
Sadly, it seems as if WWII is fading from our collective memories. And when people forget history, it repeats itself. The United States is not a light on a hill. I’m not sure any of our current world leaders even come close to shining that light. Instead, it seems ignorance and a lack of action let a new war begin.
Herrera said that Putin’s decision is even “more mind-boggling” considering he essentially had a victory after the incursion into the Donbas region, where separatists and Ukrainians have been fighting for eight years.
He recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics on Monday and dispatched troops there that he euphemistically referred to as “peacekeepers.”
“As of last week he had already achieved a lot of his goals getting everyone to pause on letting Ukraine join NATO,” said Herrera, referring to the U.S. led National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance intended to guarantee its members’ security.
U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, who serves as chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, said Putin’s obvious objective is to take the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and install a pro-Russian government.
Putin has said he does not want to occupy Ukraine but “demilitarize” it. The autocratic leader is uncomfortable bordering a democratic, slavic nation that looks to the west and not Moscow, said Valery Dzutsati, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas and an expert on Russia.
“If Ukraine is a flourishing democracy, it is a very bad example for Russia,” he said. Putin is threatened by social revolution, and Ukraine has a history of ousting unpopular regimes, he added.
There is also a large segment of the Russian population that is nostalgic for the USSR and will celebrate bringing Ukraine back into the fold of the Motherland — if it is done swiftly and with limited bloodshed, Dzutsati predicted.
Meanwhile, the free world knows President Biden won’t be an asset to anyone.
He’s no more effective than a piece of yard art. Actually, that might be a generous description of the demented clown in charge. And no matter what anyone says, Trump is correct. This wouldn’t be happening if he were still in the Oval Office.
As one article put it:
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee criticized President Biden over his diplomatic “weakness” and said the administration’s delay in issuing crippling sanctions emboldened Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think that this weakness that the Biden administration and the diplomatic failure is projecting is that our enemies and adversaries around the world know they can walk all over Joe Biden and his weak diplomatic core,” Rep. Claudia Tenney told Fox News. “We should have imposed sanctions earlier – strict, crippling sanctions.”
“We could have done something months ago when we knew Putin was amassing troops on the Ukrainian border, and we should have done something to show force,” the New York Republican said. “For example, maybe putting a couple of destroyers into the Black Sea.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday by land, air and sea in the largest military attack of one state against another on the European continent since World War II.
The wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday hit cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. Ukraine’s government said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border in a “full-scale war” that could rewrite the geopolitical order.
Russian President Vladmir Putin “has diabolically moved in and invaded the country without provocation and is now leaving a trail of [civilian and military] casualties,” Tenney told Fox News. “This is what we’re hearing from unverified reports – we’re watching the live shelling of the entire country.”
“He’s using cyber, air, land, sea – everything he can to shut down Ukraine,” she continued.
Rep. Steve Chabot echoed similar sentiments. He said Putin has capitalized on what he called Biden’s projected “weakness.”
“There has been weakness projected by this administration, and weakness invites aggression,” the Ohio Republican told Fox News. “I think Putin has taken advantage of the situation.”
Why wouldn’t he? We don’t have a leader willing to put a stop to any of Putin’s actions. All we have is a demented clown.
