Fogbow

Marco Rubio @marcorubio wrote: I wish I could share more,but for now I can say it’s pretty obvious to many that something is off with #Putin

He has always been a killer,but his problem now is different & significant

It would be a mistake to assume this Putin would react the same way he would have 5 years ago

I don’t put much (any?) stock in them, but rumors abound on Twitter from people who swear that Putin has recently acquired some sort of terminal disease and that this is his response. Doubtful. But then I saw the Rubio tweet. Something maybe.

I just watched Smerconish show in CNN. Regardless of what Rubio has to say, and I can't stand the man, even Macron apparently made observations about Putin.

I do believe he has reached a point of complete and utter paranoia that his style of authoritarianism ultimately leads to. Smerconish mentions also that dressing down he gave his own Security Council.

Crossing fingers that his own internal machine will stop him. His current behavior is not popular and who knows? There is definitely an opportunity here for Russia to clean up it's own mess, they MUST realize he's in a state of complete and utter paranoia and that is massively dangerous for everyone.

Much like Stalin in his declining years. Paranoia, distrust of everyone and everything, seeing a conspiracy around every corner, yet still trying to assert power.

Jake Tapper @jaketapper wrote: Interesting from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl, vice chair of Senate Intel Committee, who notes that Putin “has created a system of people not telling him bad news or facts that contradict his preferences.

“He also appears to have some neuro/physiological health issues…

2/ “But most telling is this is a man who has long prided himself on emotional control. His recent flashes of anger is very uncharacteristic and show an erosion in impulse control.”

Angela Merkel thought Putin was not quite in touch with reality more than seven years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ ... el-russian

Vladimir Putin has lost the plot over Ukraine, according to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

US reports said Merkel phoned Barack Obama on Sunday evening after speaking to the Russian president to press him to back down from his invasion of Ukraine and occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

"She was not sure he was in touch with reality, people briefed on the call said. 'In another world,' she said," the New York Times reported.

The vast gap between Putin's and the west's perceptions of what is taking place in Ukraine is adding to the pressure on the White House to take the lead in what US experts are calling the defining international crisis of Barack Obama's two terms. Senior US administration officials concede that Putin has taken total control of Crimea.

Jake Tapper@jaketapper·13h
Interesting from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl, vice chair of Senate Intel Committee, who notes that Putin “has created a system of people not telling him bad news or facts that contradict his preferences.

“He also appears to have some neuro/physiological health issues…

OrlyLicious @ Orly_licious
Replying to @jaketapper
Hey Jake, in this tweet you misspelled TRUMP.

There are rumors that he has abdominal cancer.

Rumors in tabloid press, to be exact, but*

In any case, he doesn't look well.

I wonder if he is on steroid type meds. The bloating of his face doesn't seem right




*

Putin decides to present an image of camaraderie, and trust in his advisors.

WARNING WARNING WILL ROBINSON!

NSFW

It's juvenile, it's purile, it's Vladimir Putin made entirely out of Dick pics.

Honestly? He'd probably like that.

Petraeus this morning on how poorly it's going for Putin.





Important (although more pessimistic than my Russia expert friends think is warranted) Q&A about Putin:

Q&A
‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes
Putin is trying to take down the entire world order, the veteran Russia watcher said in an interview. But there are ways even ordinary Americans can fight back.

https://www.audiobooks.com/book/stream/411994

Fiona Hill (whom you may remember from the impeachment trial) is an outstanding Russia expert. She wrote a book called "Mr. Putin" which was updated. It's on Overdrive (for us, 2 week wait on the print version and they don't have the audiobook which runs 17 hours).

Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... Caps%2C285


Here's the first 10 minutes: https://www.audiobooks.com/book/stream/411994


Here's an hour-long interview with Dr. Hill from a year ago, it's from the Wilson Center.





A guy I spent a lot of time with was (he was like an Uncle-type) Vladimir Pozner, who fascinated me. I learned a ton from him. He has a Brooklyn accent, but when he opened his mouth all this communist stuff poured out. As a cocky young patriotic American capitalist, we had some shall we say spirited debates. Disagreed with him on everything. Pozner ended up doing some TV shows with Phil Donahue. Here's a lecture he gave at Yale in 2018

Vladimir Pozner: How the United States Created Vladimir Putin
3,968,899 views Oct 2, 2018
YaleUniversity 280K subscribers

On September 27, 2018, Yale's Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Poynter Fellowship for Journalism hosted Vladimir Pozner, the acclaimed Russian-American journalist and broadcaster. Pozner spoke on the impact of US foreign policy towards Russia after the Soviet Union has been disbanded, and shared his opinions on a range of issues raised by the audience, from the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, to Skripal poisoning, to the state of independent media in Russia and the US.

It occurs to me that Putin may have a dream of rebuilding the USSR, or at least a big part of it. He was, after all, a high-ranking KGB officer. Maybe he dreams of returning to "the good old days".

Or maybe he is trying to return to what was essentially a system of colonies in eastern Europe, where the vassal countries supplied Mother Russia with the goods they need to survive.

I'm not sure that a reconstituted USSR would be any more able to avoid economic collapse than the old one did. A big part of what brought the USSR down was the enormous drain on their economy that supporting the military entailed. Is history repeating itself?

I just hope that, if he is successful in conquering Ukraine and annexing it into greater Russia, that there are no modern-day Neville Chamberlains around, who will be satisfied in their belief that Putin has gotten all he wanted.

I think it is his dream to rebuild the USSR or the old empire. Time moves on; country borders change. Ask Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, any number of other places. They are still bemoaning the Trianon Treaty in Hungary in 1920. It reduced Hungary 's area by two thirds and the population by one third. Since then, considerable Hungarian minorities have been living in the neighboring countries. The family I have left over there now lives in Slovakia.

Oh dear. Has Pootie had his feelings hurt?

noblepa wrote: ↑Mon Feb 28, 2022 5:39 pm It occurs to me that Putin may have a dream of rebuilding the USSR, or at least a big part of it. He was, after all, a high-ranking KGB officer. Maybe he dreams of returning to "the good old days".

It is probably not so much a thing about rebuilding the USSR but the old dream of that expanding Russian frontier. That old imperialistic dream found its way into Babylon 5 when Cmdr. Ivanova quips, in response to Dr. Franklin's order that she gain weight, "Figures. All my life, I've fought against imperialism. Now, suddenly, I am the expanding Russian frontier."

Receipts, receipts, receipts, we got them. Remember my tweet from December where I posted the cover of Newsmax December issue? Here’s a reminder.

Dr. Jorge A. Caballero stands with 🇺🇦 @DataDrivenMD wrote: Hear me out: Putin may not be the rational agent that many assumed him to be

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla wrote: * THERE WAS NOTHING REASSURING IN WHAT PUTIN TOLD MACRON, PUTIN SHOWED HIS DETERMINATION TO CARRY ON OPERATIONS - FRENCH OFFICIAL

@Reuters

Antifa did it!

max seddon @maxseddon wrote: Putin speaking to his security council.

"I will never abandon my conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people [...] but the way the battle is going shows we are fighting neo-Nazis."

He claims Ukraine is using civilians and foreigners as "human shields."

Essentially Putin is responding to the international criticism of the huge civilian toll of the war in Ukraine – even from allies – by saying it’s all Ukrainians Nazis who did it. “Our soldiers and officers are trying to prevent civilian casualties and suffer losses themselves.”

Significant that Putin is publicly addressing the Russian casualties in Ukraine. Families are getting payouts of as much as 7m rubles (about $65,000)

“Russian soldiers and officers act courageously, like real heroes. Our armed forces completely understand what they are fighting for and know they are right…giving their lives to save their fellow soldiers. In battle our armed forces and the Donbas militia show mass heroism.”

Putin: “The special operation in Ukraine is going according to plan and in full compliance with the timetable. All tasks set during the special operation in Ukraine are being accomplished successfully.”

At the end, Putin held a moment of silence for Russia's victims.

This time, the security council was held on Putin's Zoom and they didn't even show any of its members – it was just Putin speaking in a room for a few minutes.

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/14 ... 36103?s=20