Tuesday, March 01, 2022

What is happening with President Putin?

So.... It has been 5 days since the start of Putin's ill advised war. The Ukrainians seem to be holding up and no major city has fallen into the hands of Russian forces. Russia has become the international pariah and even Switzerland, that bastion of neutrality has adopted wholesale EU sanctions against Russia. One has to stop for a second if the Swiss are taking a stand. Russians, themselves are protesting against this war. Many of them are on the streets while many more are withdrawing their money from ATMs. The rouble has tanked and all for what?

Everything that has been the stated objectives of Putin have failed and the opposite has been achieved. I think Putin thought that this would be a re-run of the Crimean annex. A quick military exercise, the current Ukrainian leadership toppled and replaced with a pro Russian one and Bob's your uncle. Most probably, the rest of the world would have made some noise and slapped a few sanctions which Russia could have ridden through. The fierce resistance of the Ukrainians and the condemnation of the whole world must have surprised him. One thing that Putin has done is the unity of so many. That would have been an impossible feat normally. 

There has been some news that President Putin is quite ill and wanted to roll the dice before he died. His face does look quite puffy. So, could it all be true? If so, how is Putin going to react to all this setbacks?

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