Retired CIA honcho Daniel Hoffman has got Putin’s number. The closer democracy gets to Russia the more Putin has to fear from his own people.
By the way, as a side note, remember who said this about Putin, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,” George W. Bush said in remarks. “I was able to get a sense of his soul.” Dubya, very nice man. Very gullible man.
What Putin seems to fear the most, rightly so, is that democratic revolution reaches Moscow. Thus, democracy itself is a threat to him.
— Janne M. Korhonen ??????? (@jmkorhonen) February 22, 2022
Hoffman: Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ringing propaganda-laced alarm bells about the U.S.-led NATO alliance. Putin portrays it as the “enemy” at Russia’s gates, threatening the besieged motherland — which only Putin can defend.
But the alliance is instead comprised of Russia’s sovereign, free, democratic neighbors committed to the principles of freedom and liberty, each determined to counter Russia’s economic predation and nefarious political influence — which most threaten Putin’s regime security.
What scares Vladimir Putin the most? It’s always been democracy, especially in the former Soviet Union, whose collapse Putin once called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
That is why Ukraine has been under siege with increasing intensity from the Kremlin’s cyber, economic and military attacks since 2014 when Russia began backing separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region with military and material support and illegally annexed Crimea. Nothing threatens Putin’s regime security more than Ukraine, a democratic neighbor with a bright economic future and sizable Russian-speaking population.
In a throwback to an eerily similar justification Hitler used to annex the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, Putin justified the Crimea referendum and his decision this week to send troops thinly disguised as “peacekeepers” ostensibly to defend Ukraine’s ethnically Russian population.
Russia’s aggression has only increased NATO’s commitment to mutual defense, with commensurate troop and military equipment deployments to the most vulnerable NATO members on Russia’s border. In Putin’s world, a strong NATO in conflict with Russia lends credibility to his propaganda myth that only he, the KGB operative in the Kremlin, can defend Russia from Russia’s pernicious enemies.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be costly to Russia’s economy in terms of lost trade, sanctions, and significant budget resources devoted to the Donbas region just as there was for Crimea including building the Kerch straight bridge as well as South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
But for Russia, which reportedly lost 1% of its GDP as a result of sanctions the West levied in 2014, guaranteeing Putin’s regime security is worth the cost — even if it makes Russia more subservient to China for imports of its hydrocarbons. And all the better if the Ukraine crisis results in higher oil and gas prices, which can offset some of those losses.
Make no mistake, Putin is targeting first and foremost Ukraine’s territorial integrity but also by extension the EU, NATO, and most especially Russia’s “Main Enemy” the United States. Putin wants to demonstrate that the West is an unreliable ally, who failed to prevent Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea; massive cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s media, electric power grid, and government ministries; and repeated violations of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Putin cannot allow Ukraine to succeed as a democracy, which would serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for his own domestic opponents who are denied basic civil liberties including freedom of expression and assembly. Putin’s long-term objective is the destruction of Ukraine as a state.
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Democracy scares Putin IE lose his “powers”
That’s all well and good, but the CIA isn’t exactly known for allowing democracy to flourish in foreign countries. And Ukraine is not exactly a democracy – not when it’s used to launder money for elites. Did everyone suddenly forget that President Biden is on record – in fact he openly bragged about – committing extortion there while he was VP?
Say Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. Soundwave, you must be referring to and about when Ex-Ukrainian President Poroshencko was in office, who was after another Ex-Ukrainian President Yanuckovich, who was Ousted all Because The Legal Population Of The Independent Country Of Ukraine, All Who Did NOT Like Being A Follower Of That BULLY = Mr. Vlad “The Impaler” Putin, Who was Never A President, but a Dictator, just like the questionable person named in the next sentence, NOT #45, But the next 1 Named!?! This was before #45 happened to be in office = but when #44 = Mr. Bathroom Barry Alias Barack Hussein Soetoro Alias Soebarkah Alias Dunham Alias Obama was the us president, was the us president that truly started all of the IGNORING = CIRCUMNAVIGATING = CIRCUMVENTING The Whole US Constitution, all because he is a Anti-US Constitutional Marxist, which Is NOT Compatible toward what Those Early Founders Of Those 13 Original 13 Ex-British Colonies, which became The United States Of America Back On July 4, 1776 AD! People of the likes of you and your Un-Educated = Communistic Socialistic = WOKE Indoctrinated Anti-US Constitutional Progressive Liberal Democratic Donkey Party Followers either need to be Educated The Anti-Marxist Way or Have To DEPORTED Outside Of The USA’s Very Own Boundaries!!!
This is a propaganda piece, no question about it.
Everything we are seeing in U.S. media surrounding U.S. interests in Ukraine is a massive propaganda operation with the headquarters in the U.S. State Department and U.S. intelligence community. The sense of sympathy you are feeling is part of an intentionally manipulative operation from within this DC matrix.
The images, pictures, videos, speeches, soundbites, and the cinematography broadcast by U.S. corporate media are all purposefully intended to create a very specific outlook within the American people toward the issues in Ukraine. The leftist United Nations, and the leftist U.S State Dept, will work together on this just like they have done in the prior examples (Ukraine 1.0, Libya, Egypt, etc.).
-CTH-
Hello, Mr. Vlad Putin The Impaler, Sir, Well, That Is How You Come Into The Open As = A Life Sized Vampire, Who Would LOVE It, ONLY IF You Will All Of The Time Get It Your Own Way, Or Acting Like Your Most Likely 1 Of Your Ancestral Gene Pool Buddies Of The Likes Of Genghis Khan, Or Most Recently, Of The Likes Of Mr. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin Alias Mr. Ioseb Dzhugashvili (Yes, These 2 Are The Very Same Animal From Russian History, Yes, From The Late 1920’s All Thru The 1930’s = The Extremely Scorched Earth Attitude Of Yous)! Say Mr, Vlad Putin, Sir, How about Dismounting Your Idol’s = Czar Petre The Great’s Mighty Stallion, And Act Like A Present Time Russian Serb, Yes, Be Like 1 Of The Russian Workers Of Today, And STOP Acting Like A Giant Sized Bully!!!
It Is About Time That #46 Said Something About These Ingrateful Human Beings, Maybe #46 Has Come To His Own Logical Senses (Or Maybe #44 = Mr. Biden’s Very Own Handler Showed His Very Own Communistic Socialistic = Marxistic And Anti-US Constitutional Colours), Say all of you Communistic Socialistic Terrorists, Of The Likes Of BLM, And The So-Called Squad Alias The Corrupt Anti-US Constitutional Quartet Alias The Anti-American Jihad Squad, Even The Anti-US Constitutional And Looney View + All Of Those Anti-US Constitutional Left Side Of The US Political Equation + Their WOKE Indoctrinated Snowflake RINO Puppets, Yes, You, Bunch Of Ingrates = So-Called Human Beings That Believe In All Of Those Hollow Little Questionable Religious Icons, That A Lot Of Mr. Vlad Putin’s Blind Followers = The 21st Century Impaler, Just Maybe He Is Related To Transylvania’s Count Dracula, All Of You Animals Need To Take Up Residence Inside 1 Of Those Insane Asylums, And I Am Suggesting That #46 Recruit A Lot Of Those Old Fashioned Lobotomy Doctors, To Truly Find Out What Makes These So-Called Human Beings Tick-Tock, Including Mr. Jerry “On The US Congressional Floor Full Of US Congress People, Who Said That BLM And That Anarchistic Bunch Of ANTIFA Members Are ONLY MYTHS” Nadler, Which They Are REAL Abusive Anti-American Trouble Makers, All, Who Has To Be DEPORTED OUTSIDE OF THE USA’S VERY OWN BOUNDARIES, HAVE THEIR ILL-GOTTEN-GAINS CONFISCATED (SO THEIR ILL-GOTTEN-GAINS CAN PAY FOR THE USA’S NATIONAL DEBT AND RE-IMERSE ALL OF THOSE SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE, WHO THESE ANTI-US CONSTITUTIONAL ABUSIVE HOODLUMS DID IN FACT DESTROYED THEIR BUSINESSES!!!