Almost beyond parody, another senior Russian official is found dead. This time it is the transport minister, Roman Starovoit, who apparently shot himself. One of the richest oligarchs, Konstantin Strukov, is meanwhile arrested whilst trying to flee Turkey in his luxury private jet.
Putin’s coffers are rapidly running dry; his oil sales, the “black gold” which keeps his army marching, is rapidly falling. The iron grip of the Kremlin may be about to collapse.
Many surmise that Europe is at its 1939 moment again. The modern-day Hitler is on the march East again, and European countries are wholly unprepared militarily and socially to oppose Putin’s forces.
But as likely, perhaps, is that Russia is at its 1934 moment. On December 1 1934, Sergei Kirov, the Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary, was shot and killed by Leonid Nikolaev. Nikolaev and several alleged accomplices were convicted in a show trial and executed less than 30 days later. Kirov’s assassination was used by Stalin as a reason for starting the Moscow trials and the Great Purge; he accused Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and others of being part of a wider conspiracy to undermine the Soviet Union.
The parallels with today are clear. Almost 2 years ago Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian mercenary leader and close associate of Putin, died mysteriously after attempting to oppose the Russian president.
In short, “the system”, such as it is, cannot sensibly resolve issues like corruption, embezzlement, property-ownership – there’s no rule of law. There is, instead, the use of naked thuggery to enforce authority. The most powerful gang or clan wins.
It is important to look at the current situation in Ukraine amidst this engulfing chaos. President Putin’s 3-day special military operation is now in its fourth year, with over one million casualties and increasing at a rate of 1000 per day; the mothers of Russia who forced the USSR out of Afghanistan in 1989 after 17,000 deaths appear to be stirring at last.
The Russian leader, meanwhile, has just had to purchase 30,000 souls off North Korea for heaven knows what in return, a definitive statement that Russia is running out of conscripts to keep the meat grinder fed.
Putin’s dismissal of the Ayatollah’s pleas for help from the US onslaught on Iran’s nuclear programme is a further sure sign that that Russia is completely fixed on its misadventure in Ukraine.
With the wheels appearing to wobble on the Russian president’s ambition to reinstate the borders of the Soviet Union, now is surely the time for the West to turn the screw and enforce a just peace for Ukraine.
Unfortunately, with president Trump being showered with false flattery about Nobel Peace Prize nominations, he seems unlikely to jeopardise his chances and get further involved in the messy conflict in Ukraine.
Since the Nato Summit last month, when we all threw the “kitchen sink” at defence spending, most European countries, including the UK, have also appeared to turn inwards once again to play party politics.
Let us hope that when the “want-to-be King of Europe” Emmanuel Macron meets our real King today, Charles III can talk sense to Starmer and the French president and get them to lead a European military alliance that can convince Putin that peace is the only option in Ukraine.
Almost beyond parody, another senior Russian official is found dead. This time it is the transport minister, Roman Starovoit, who apparently shot himself. One of the richest oligarchs, Konstantin Strukov, is meanwhile arrested whilst trying to flee Turkey in his luxury private jet.
Putin’s coffers are rapidly running dry; his oil sales, the “black gold” which keeps his army marching, is rapidly falling. The iron grip of the Kremlin may be about to collapse.
Many surmise that Europe is at its 1939 moment again. The modern-day Hitler is on the march East again, and European countries are wholly unprepared militarily and socially to oppose Putin’s forces.
But as likely, perhaps, is that Russia is at its 1934 moment. On December 1 1934, Sergei Kirov, the Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary, was shot and killed by Leonid Nikolaev. Nikolaev and several alleged accomplices were convicted in a show trial and executed less than 30 days later. Kirov’s assassination was used by Stalin as a reason for starting the Moscow trials and the Great Purge; he accused Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and others of being part of a wider conspiracy to undermine the Soviet Union.
The parallels with today are clear. Almost 2 years ago Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian mercenary leader and close associate of Putin, died mysteriously after attempting to oppose the Russian president.
In short, “the system”, such as it is, cannot sensibly resolve issues like corruption, embezzlement, property-ownership – there’s no rule of law. There is, instead, the use of naked thuggery to enforce authority. The most powerful gang or clan wins.
It is important to look at the current situation in Ukraine amidst this engulfing chaos. President Putin’s 3-day special military operation is now in its fourth year, with over one million casualties and increasing at a rate of 1000 per day; the mothers of Russia who forced the USSR out of Afghanistan in 1989 after 17,000 deaths appear to be stirring at last.
The Russian leader, meanwhile, has just had to purchase 30,000 souls off North Korea for heaven knows what in return, a definitive statement that Russia is running out of conscripts to keep the meat grinder fed.
Putin’s dismissal of the Ayatollah’s pleas for help from the US onslaught on Iran’s nuclear programme is a further sure sign that that Russia is completely fixed on its misadventure in Ukraine.
With the wheels appearing to wobble on the Russian president’s ambition to reinstate the borders of the Soviet Union, now is surely the time for the West to turn the screw and enforce a just peace for Ukraine.
Unfortunately, with president Trump being showered with false flattery about Nobel Peace Prize nominations, he seems unlikely to jeopardise his chances and get further involved in the messy conflict in Ukraine.
Since the Nato Summit last month, when we all threw the “kitchen sink” at defence spending, most European countries, including the UK, have also appeared to turn inwards once again to play party politics.
Let us hope that when the “want-to-be King of Europe” Emmanuel Macron meets our real King today, Charles III can talk sense to Starmer and the French president and get them to lead a European military alliance that can convince Putin that peace is the only option in Ukraine.