“The root causes of the conflict.”
These were startling words from a man purportedly on the path to peace.
But it is the nub of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position of what must be solved for peace, after two weeks, or three months, depending on how you count, of mounting pressure for an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Unbothered, taking this most consequential of calls at a music school on the Sochi coast, the Kremlin head has returned to the start – to his false narrative about this war of choice being sparked by NATO expanding too fast.
At this point Putin has no choice but to keep the war going. His economy is sliding, and has been, and all that’s propping it up is the switch to a wartime economy. Take that away and the whole house of cards collapses. So I don’t give two shits what he says about anything regarding all this. He’s stuck with no moves left.
Oh, and his population has been crashing for years. And now Russia is losing a solid chunk of healthy young men. Remember Putin creating a national holiday years ago? Everyone was to stay home and fuck. I’m not making this up. Haven’t heard about it for a long time. Anyone?