MK BHADRAKUMAR, SENIOR INDIAN DIPLOMATIC
Make no mistake, this is a turning point. The only comforting thought is that the Kremlin leaders will not be swayed by emotions. The careful reaction of the Kremlin is in the Russian ambassador’s comment in the US: “How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable.…
Cryptic or mocking comments from the West who doubt the Kremlin statement about Ukraine’s failed attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin do not detract from the fact that Moscow has no reason to fabricate such a serious accusation. A fact that is likely to lead to the reduction of its celebrations of Victory Day, on May 9, which is a triumphant moment in Russian history, especially now that it is fighting the resurgence of Nazi ideology in the political landscape of Europe. no help from anyone again.
The readiness with which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discredited the Kremlin’s accusation perhaps gives away the game. It is in neoconservative DNA to duck at such decisive moments. That being said, unsurprisingly, Blinken too distanced the Biden administration of the attack on the Kremlin.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Marks Milley, did something similar in an interview with Foreign Affairs magazine, denying in advance any responsibility for the upcoming Ukrainian “counteroffensive.” This is the new refrain from the Biden Administration: don’t listen to things that go wrong, don’t talk about them. There is no longer talk, either, of supporting kyiv to the end “no matter what the cost”, as Biden used to say. until you get enough .
The fact of the matter is that kyiv’s much-vaunted “counter-offensive” is struggling with the Western prognosis that it is doomed to fail. The highlight this week was the podcast of Foreign Affairs with General Milley who also showed his distrust of the result. Milley categorically refused to say that kyiv was going to launch its “counteroffensive”
There is a big dilemma today, as the entire Western narrative of a Russian defeat is exposed, treated as one big pack of lies and, at the same time, the myth of Kiev’s military prowess in countering the military might of a superpower. it has evaporated. The Ukrainian army is being systematically reduced to dust. In reality, Ukraine has turned into an open wound that quickly becomes gangrenous, and there is little time left to cauterize this wound.
Worse yet, the kyiv regime is riddled with factions. There are powerful cliques that oppose peace talks with Russia unless Moscow capitulates and instead want an escalation so that the Western powers remain engaged. And even after Boris Johnson’s departure, this position has a following in the West.
The cabal installed in the power structure in Kiev could well have been the author of this dangerous act of provocation directed against the Kremlin with a hidden agenda to trigger a Russian retaliation.
From Blinken’s vacuous comment, it appears that the neoconservatives in the Biden Administration led by Victoria Nuland are also in no mood to rein in the mavericks in kyiv. As for Europe, as is known, it has lost its independent voice.
This will probably go down in the history books as the great failure of contemporary European leadership and, in essence, lies the paradox that it is not France but the German government that has become most allied with the United States, in a time of confrontation.
These are fateful times, which are reducing all the capacities of France and Italy and which is also weakening Germany itself, against the backdrop of the pandemic, war and inflation. It is important to highlight whate no it is just an economic question, since political decline and deindustrialization in Europe are closely related and the social fabric that supported the center has crumbled.
Germany, the powerhouse of Europe, has been relatively lucky so far. She benefited from cheap labor from Eastern Europe and cheap gas from Russia. But that has already happened and the decline of the German industry is foreseeable. When society fragments, the political system also fragments and progressively more effort will be required to govern those countries. Germany and Italy have tripartite coalitions; The Netherlands has four games; Belgium has a seven-party coalition.
For the moment, the hardliners of the kyiv regime have set the pace of events and the Europeans will meekly follow. But there is a ‘chill in the room’, to borrow the words of Judie Foster in the famous movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
Make no mistake, this is a turning point; the clumsy attempt on Putin’s life shakes the kaleidoscope beyond his recognition. The only comforting thought is that the Kremlin leaders will not be swayed by emotions. The careful reaction of the Kremlin is in the Russian ambassador’s comment in the USA, Anatoly Antonov : “How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol, or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable..
The ambassador went on to draw the bottom line: “Russia will respond to this insolent and presumptuous terrorist attack. We will respond when we consider it necessary. We will respond in accordance with the assessments of the threat that kyiv posed to the leadership of our country.”
No knee jerk reactions are expected. Nonetheless, curtailing the Victory Day celebrations in Red Square must have been a difficult decision. Victory Day, May 9, is the most important holiday in Russia when citizens and the state unite in a patriotic celebration during which people remember their family members who sacrificed their lives to defeat Nazism. .
Many of the features of the day – parades, songs and commemorative ceremonies – date back to the Soviet era. Victory Day is the only major holiday that was kept during the transition to post-Soviet Russia. In a country that lost many of its heroic achievements with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the triumph over Nazism remained a source of enormous collective and personal pride.
But Putin’s hands are tied even though the country is furious and demands a forceful response, as Russian Security Council Vice President Dmitry Medvedev said: “After today’s terrorist attack, there are no options left except the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal”.
As for Zelensky, he simply left Kiev for Helsinki, and then The Hague, arriving in Berlin on May 13 for a state visit, perhaps sensing danger. In fact, the fate of the Zelensky regime seems sealed. Zelensky reminds us of the Wandering Jew, who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and then was cursed to wander the earth until a mythical second coming of the “savior.”
Crisis Observatory
