This is absolutely nuts. Is Putin trying to make the rest of the world hate his guts? Is he going to start bombing kitten and puppy hospitals next?
83 thoughts on “Putin working hard to become the most hated man in the world”
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Cats, charts, and politics
Once again has democracy been wide-eyed , been naive , been deceived . Once again has democracy believed an unscrupulous dictator in the end would act according to what we believe is logic and predictability
Vladimir Putin is beyond everything that has to do with what is considered to be moral or ethical. A sane person cannot understand how the mind of a monster like Vladimir Putin works .
Putin has been trained into being a torturer back in the bad old days by KGB . He has been involved with organized crime for decades, stealing and murdering. His political legacy is deceiving and oppression and that’s what he expects from everyone else.
Putin is a man who is terrified because he knows dictators never retires.
Dictators have to stay on top or else will they lose everything… most likely also their life
Vladimir Putin has created an alternative reality and he needs to convince the majority of the Russians to accept it … and he is probably even accepting his own lies as truths by know.
A comment by a Swede who isn’t comfortable with having Russia as a neighbor
The ugly secret is that the world has no recourse for a nuclear power behavng badly.
"If you're not strong enough to stop me what difference does it make?"
That's it. That's the whole calculus.
Yes. Everything you posted here is true. But Putin is now second only to Iosef Djugashvili as the longest serving Russian dictator. Djugashvili died in office, and Putin plans to do the same. Whether on not he dies of natural causes is a separate question.
As ruthless as he is, Putin has yet to attain Stalinesque levels. When he executes the Russian generals who botched the retraining and deployment of the disaster that is the Russian army, then he will be reaching for that apotheosis. Until then, Putin is a Stalin wannabe.
A comment by an American who has visited Umeå.
Really, everybody should read this,
This dark and disturbing figure is advising Putin's inner circle,
https://www.rawstory.com/aleksandr-gelyevich-dugin/
It's straightforward supernatural Naziism promoting a Russian imperium 'from Dublin to Valdivostock'.
"Is he going to start bombing kitten and puppy hospitals next?"
Worse, he is attacking children's hospitals and maternity wards.
Sorry, my other comment was not meant to be a reply to your comment.
I wouldn't call him "illogical". He doesn't care if he's hated. What he wants is to be feared. He might well think he isn't feared enough.
There is a logic operating here, it just lacks the usual constraint of compassion.
WWSD (What Would Stalin Do)?
He would deport the entire population of Ukraine to some place in the arctic where they can freeze to death.
Last time he just starved a few hundred thousand to death in situ.
A few million. Please do not white wash the Holodomor
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic"
- J. Stalin
3.9 million Ukrainians, according to one group.
A few hundred thousand deaths is "white washing?" Seriously?
Look, I wasn't sure how many died *in* Ukraine vs how many died during deportation and in Siberia. A few hundred thousand is obscene. So is a few million. Who debates degrees of obscenity?
Mass Deportation was for more manageable numbers, like the original native Crimean population, Crimean Tatars and other Crimean ethnicities making the bad mistake of not being "reliable ethnicities"
(ironic Stalin, being Georgian...)
I was thinking he might be thinking of the Uighurs as the exemplary model.
what's happening in ukraine isn't logical. the entire war. shelling/bombing civilian targets isn't tactical, isn't strategic. it's merely the russian army/putin lashing out at their own ineptitude, their inability to defeat the ukrainian army. destroying cities is only going to make things more miserable for putin's army, assuming it ever gets inside them.
To be read with a certain degree of caution, but picked up in a reference in a message board: https://nataliaantonova.substack.com/p/the-book-that-best-explains-putins?s=w
It would be useful to know if in fact what she asserts (Putin has read the book, likes it) is true although the correspondence of actual action is distburbing.
Right now, I find it a bit embarrassing to see the Swedish response to this war. It is as if our government didn't notice the madman ruling Russia and the threat he poses until now. We have been acting as if the world around us must be safe because the cold war is over. Not to go into detail, but it takes a lot more time to build a decent defense than to dismount one.
The real Putin huggers has been Germany represented by Gerhard Schröder (former German chancellor) and his successor Angela Merkel .
Their reluctance to handle Germany’s future needs of energy in a sustainable way has made them dependent on the monster in the Kremlin. This is one of the main reasons Putin decided to move on Ukraine.
Merkel was raised in East Germany -- I don't think she had/has any illusions about Russia, but Schroeder's over-the-top toadying for Putin was really shameful.
The idiocy of German energy policy. Merkel owns the idiocy of Nuclear shut down.
And she should have known better, given that she was trained as a scientist.
Yea, I suppose blaming a single person for a democratically selected policy does make sense...
No wait, it doesn't.
Says the knee jerking person who has no clue as to the Merkel decision nor German political structure.
You guys are gonna look silly when Finland goes NATO but you don't.
Your are quite right about that. Although I find that a highly unlikely situation.The cooperation between our two countries in military/defense matters is such that I am rather sure a NATO membership would only happen simultaneously, regardless how it may seem right now. But we'll see.
If you see him as a classic narcissist who feels he has been disrespected, it makes sense. He’s letting you know who’s boss.
He’s letting you know your wimpy sentimental civilized Western rules don’t matter to him. Pretty disturbing if he then feels he needs to take the next step…
Vladimir Putin just wants to show us that he will never be Woke. He will be strong, virile, a mid-century man's man, like that Russian Army recruitment ad that Soup Cruz approvingly retweeted.
Mid-19th-century, mid-20th-century; definitely not 21st …
Look, I just committed an atrocity and the West did nothing....
______
Get the jets to the Ukrainians now.
Facile posturing.
As both running a risk of open war with Russia and facile as not being enough to counter Russian air superiority.
Rather better to accelerate MANPADS and other air defence into Western Ukraine to render Russian air superiority a bad joke, than send the few Ukrainian pilots to cinematic deaths.
Definitely need to pour in the MANPADS, as well as current-generation anti-armor weapons. The last reports I saw, though, were that the Ukrainians were still able to fly brief missions, at least in some areas. But drones might be even more effective. It seems from here that most of the damage right now is coming from conventional and rocket artillery.
Yes, agreed, MANPADS and Drones. Was stupid to not cite. Drones, Drones, Drones and more Drones of all kinds.
More practical and pragmatic, although less cinematic.
Mig29s will just feed fiery death videos for no particularly good purpose.
yes to all of that....
I fear NATO and the US better have fast reaction forces ready to secure the nuclear plants (working or not working) in Ukraine.
Putin scorched earth policy means he's losing and he knows it.
Actual experts are pointing out that the Polish Migs on offer have an updated NATO set of avionics and targeting controls that the Ukrainians would need extra training to use. It's not like going from a PC to a Mac. Other users with standard Russian equipment would do better to offer their planes.
You might think that this is a ploy by the Poles to swap their old Migs for new F-16s. I couldn't possibly comment.
I cannot figure out why he would want to do this, but it is almost as if he is trying to incite NATO to go to war with him. As the atrocities become more severe, political pressure here and in the EU to do something that would result in a direct confrontation between NATO and Russian Federation troops (no-fly zone, air attacks, etc.) will probably increase.
I think it's more nuanced than that. He has calculated (correctly I think) that NATO won't engage him in Ukraine, pretty much regardless of what he does, because escalation could lead to a nuclear exchange.
Which means that when he escalates in the Ukraine, the NATO powers and their citizenry are going to have feelings of helplessness, and (he hopes) turn against their leaders who are (in fact, wisely) holding back.
Human beings really, really don't like feelings of helplessness.
I don’t think Putin is doing any nuance these days. Looks like pure lizard brain (No offense to lizards).
This is such a good, good example of the "thought ending cliche" I thought I would point it out. What you said sounds great, but it's meaningless.
I was not describing Putin as having nuance I was describing myself, and encouraging readers to have it. I was also encouraging readers to be less intimidated by Putin, since "he's crazy" is an intimidation trope.
And here you are, throwing more fuel on the "he's so scary" fire.
I mean, yeah, he is kind of scary. Anyone who does not let compassion check their actions is dangerous. And yet, this is a time for us to be steadfast, courageous and clear-eyed. We need to understand who our enemy is and how he thinks.
Bullies always seek to make you feel helpless. It's page one of the game plan.
Well of course it’s a cliché. But you did say “he has calculated…” and I mean to say that I don’t think this was a coolly thought-out decision. In Belarus, as earlier in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, he took advantage of pre-existing disorder and/or conflict, and limited his objectives. Had he followed those precedents, he would have perhaps extended separatist/Russian control in the Donbas, with smaller forces. But he tried to seize the whole country in a massive invasion, and then appears to be surprised and rattled by both Ukrainian resistance, and the West’s severe response. Why this uncharacteristic recklessness?
Democrats must take every effective - key word - opportunity to hang this guy around the necks of every Republican who's expressed sympathy, admiration, or even tolerance for Putin. They must, and they must be nuanced but crystal clear in tying Republican amorality to Putin's. You're either on the side of good, or you're on the side of evil. No more f***ing around. Ask Carville; he'll tell you exactly how to do it.
Democrats and Madame Cheney and Mr Romney
Alliances of convenience to be sure, but you do want to twist every knife possible
Not sure the daughter of Darth Cheney is in a position to criticize boosters of invading armies.
Another item to keep you awake: the grid connection to the decommissioned nuclear generating plant at Chernobyl. Without external power, the plant is apparently running on the emergency diesel generators, which have a 48-hour fuel supply. The IAEA says that spent-fuel cooling will not be a problem even without forced circulation, but unless the diesels are refueled, instrument power will be lost and plant and site conditions cannot be monitored. Communications with the Ukrainian operators, who are working at gunpoint, will be even more difficult. Radiation from the 1986 disaster at Unit 4 spread as far as Scandinavia, having crossed Belarus (16 km from the site) along the way.
Why did the Russians spend resources to capture an inoperative power station, which has no military significance at all?
Missing fragment: the grid connection *has been lost*.
Just heard a BBC report. The IAEA recognizes that evaporation from spent-fuel pools will require make-up water. I would assume that this would be demineralized water, normally produced on-site in US plants. Without power, the water-treatment system can’t operate. If the operators must use domestic water for make-up, it will become slightly radioactive from the irradiation of dissolved trace elements. This has been one of the more difficult problems at the Fukushima site.
Is the active reactor at Chernobyl the same design as the one that blew up, with the fuel rods with same kind of inclusion that precipitated the disaster?
There is no active reactor. This is the defunct site.
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/chernobyl-power-supply-cut-completely-after-russian-seizure-warns-ukaine
Ah! I had mis-skimmed the article.
Yes, this one is scary. The Chernobyl disaster destroyed life in the lake where we have our summer house, simply because it happened to be raining at the time the radioactive matter passed the area. Fish from the lake is still too radioactive to eat with any regularity. So just the name Chernobyl together with potential problems is enough to give me sleepless nights. And this is just one nuclear plant (and an inactive one at that), out of several vulnerable to Putin's rampaging.
I am sorry that you were directly touched by the catastrophe. I hope the Russian commanders at the scene will come to their senses and withdraw from the site, and allow the IAEA and the Ukrainian operators to restore the plant to a safe condition.
The year of 1986 was traumatic for Sweden, with our prime minister murdered and the Chernobyl disaster the same year. These two events contributed to making us wake up and face reality in a way we hadn't had to for a long time.
For me personally, Chernobyl remains a reminder of what an utter disaster nuclear events really can be. We were, after all, not really victims in any true sense of the word, but still, the fact that the incident did affect even us, so far away, and still does, says something profound.
So, I can only agree with your hope that the Russians on the ground show more sense than their leader and keep the nuclear sites safe. For all our sake.
I hate Putin and many millions of Russian citizens. The whole of the military, their families, their suppliers, every last one of those awful despicable people are guilty of crimes against humanity and mass murder.
Their punishment should be collective and severe. Reparations.
Of course I personally think they all deserve a sentence of death, but my revenge fantasies are impractical. But they should never be allowed to participate in the world as anything but criminals for a generation. Seize their assets to pay Ukraine and it’s surviving population for rebuilding.
How do you say "honey badger" in Russian?
You want to argue with the hero of Grozny?
I also read about abandoned dogs wandering the streets looking for their families. Its just one level of horror on top of another. And the only solution is what? Nuclear war?
How would it be worse if he bombed puppy hospitals? He's killing babies.
This is what happens when we try to make the world woke.
What is posing as the government of the Russian Federation is a terrorist organization. All of its assets that can be seized, must be seized, and distributed to its victims around the world. Every effort should be made to drive the country into abject poverty, until they root out the corrupt and murderous gang at the top.
Puti is a sick man but, we must realize that he has absolutely no idea as to what is going on. He is likely hidden from those in charge.
It is easy for him, he just doesn’t lead them as much: https://youtu.be/k1YCl-RP1jY
It isn't deliberate. It is just evidence that the world class military Putin thought he had is just a bunch of yes-men, stumblebums and drunken conscripts. It's the Marv Throneberry of armies.
That is an insult to Marvelous Marv!
Anyway, the 62 Mets were an allegory of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
> Is Putin trying to make the rest of the world hate his guts?
Putin saw how his protege was treated. The orange buffoon did his best to piss everyone off, but 40% of the population begged to kiss his ass. Biden tries to be nice to everyone and has trouble getting 40% of the population to say he does a good job. Best to just be a horrible authoritarian and let those who love authoritarians carry you on their shoulders.
Putin has been a horrible authoritarian from day one, when he orchestrated bombings of Russian apartment buildings as a pretext to start a war with Chechnya to distract from corruption investigations into his government long enough to defang the Russian justice department. It's comforting to think that Russia is acting this way because of this or that thing that we did (because that preserves our sense that we Americans are the mostest importantest people in the world), but the reality is that this has fuckall to do with Trump, aside from maybe (maybe) Putin believing that after 4 years of American leadership vacuum, he could count on an anemic Western response.
You missed some things.
Russian armored vehicle shot up an elderly couple driving in their civilian vehicle -- https://twtr.in/3I8c
Russians shot point blank three people in a vehicle transporting dog food to a shelter -- https://twtr.in/3I8f
The Russian military has gone all-in on war crimes and crimes against humanity, targeting not just hospitals and residential areas, but civilians directly. We've seen the evidence of unexploded cluster bombs in the center of residential areas. They've even admitted to using thermobaric weapons -- https://twtr.in/3I8g
After all this and whatever else is to come over the next days and weeks, I can't see how Putin has an out. Either he is killed or deposed. There is no more room for peace when one side has completely abandoned any pretension to holding up ethical and moral obligations.
Putin is not looking for an out. Really, the rest of the world should abandon the pretension that Russia is a nation-state, rather than a criminal enterprise. Is anything lost by withdrawing diplomatic recognition and expelling Russian ‘diplomats’? No meaningful negotiations can be conducted with them anyway. Look at the irresponsible and aggressive statements from the Putin henchman who runs Roscosmos for an example. Putin the war criminal is the Russian ‘state’.
Russian military target and kill civilians fleeing the war -- https://bityl.co/BGUN
There is no peace to be had. This war ends with Putin out and war crimes prosecuted or Russia collapse and Putin out and war crimes prosecuted. There is no option anymore where Putin gets out with his freedom.
That has to be the West’s objective. There is no better punishment for his aggressive war premised on phony ‘security concerns’, than the end of his regime.
Obviously, cowardly Ukrainian fascists are using pregnant women as human shields to protect a biological weapons lab funded by the US.
If this were anyone but Goosedat, I would assume it was black-humor snark. Now I’m just confused.
Target identification errors happen, as do simple misses. I don't doubt that the Russians would deliberately bomb a maternity hospital if there were some apparent advantage to be gained by doing so, but I just don't see any advantage to be gained, so I suspect that this bombing was a mistake.
I don’t accept this. Russia is using nonprecision weapons, i.e. conventional and rocket artillery, indiscriminately against civilian areas, with reckless disregard for non-combatant lives. Damage to civilian infrastructure, and civilian injuries and deaths, are inevitable.
Well, again to be fair, that's how war has always worked. I believe you could ask some Iraqis or Afghans about this if you like.
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/07/a-short-history-of-u-s-bombing-of-civilian-facilities/
The words indiscriminately and reckless disregard are doing all the heavy lifting in your "argument".
I'm sure if the US were willing to sell precision guided weapons to Russia, Russia would be happy to switch to them...
I don’t understand how any concept of ‘fairness’ applies here. Because the US killed innocent civilians in unjustifiable* wars, Russia is entitled to kill an equal number in its unjustifiable war?
*I would say that a limited action to capture Bin Laden would have been justified in Afghanistan, but that isn’t what the US did.
As per Kevin's earlier post, there is something very strange about this.
Consider this particular report. Three (only three!) people reported dead, and the phrasing I see is
"When the series of blasts hit the children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, the ground shook more than a mile away. Explosions blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building."
If bombs were targeted AT the hospital, wouldn't a lot more than three people be dead? The details suggest to me that bombing happened near the hospital, with the hospital shaking, having windows blown out, and so on.
Which is still nasty, but rather different from what is being claimed, morally and legally.
I don't have any particular dog in this fight either way, but the whole things seems to me very much Nayirah testimony...
(Which of course was just updated Belgian Nuns testimony from WW1. The classics are classics for a reason; they always work...)
Is this the one where the bomb lands in the parking lot in front of the building and later a guy climbs into the crater to show that it seems to be twice as deep as he is tall?
I think this is an apologist for war criminals having trouble keeping up with Russia’s varying ‘explanations’ for the hospital deaths. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-claim-that-it-bombed-childrens-hospital-are-fake-news-2022-03-10/