A pair of articles appeared yesterday, one in the Washington Post and the other in Spiegel International, that are on different topics but are based in the same set of false assumptions, that this is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war, that he attacked Ukraine “without provocation” and that the war is going badly for Putin. The logic stemming from these false axioms leads to similar conclusions – conclusions dictated by the needs of psyops and not actual journalism.
The Spiegel article begins with a purported description of the allegedly poor execution of the partial mobilization to create the impression that it stems from the “military disaster” that is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. From there it goes on to speculate on how this supposed military disaster might turn into a nuclear war. “For the first time in years, scenarios are once again being played out in Washington, Berlin and Paris about how a nuclear catastrophe might play out,” the article reports. “Western military officials are also discussing how Putin might deploy his nuclear forces. In ‘war games’ that are also being played out in strict secrecy at the German Defense Ministry in Berlin, strategists are largely ruling out an attack with strategic nuclear weapons capable of wiping out entire cities.” Instead, “The conceivable alternative would be for Putin to detonate a low-yield, tactical nuclear bomb in the Arctic or over the Black Sea. Or he could deploy one to take out a Ukrainian military base. Even if it didn’t turn the tide on the battlefield, such an operation could make it clear that Putin is determined to do anything – and strengthen the voices of those who are calling for negotiations with Putin at any price.” This is the madman theory applied to Putin.
The Washington Post story is based on intelligence leaks that claim that a member of Putin’s inner circle who is not named has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president in recent weeks over his handling of the war in Ukraine. “The criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership over the stewardship of a war that has gone disastrously wrong for Moscow, forcing Putin last month to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops in a desperate bid to reverse recent battlefield losses,” the Post claims. “The information was deemed significant enough that it was included in President Biden’s daily intelligence briefing and shared with other U.S. officials.”
This new intelligence, the Post goes on, “coupled with comments from Russian officials, underscores divisions within Putin’s upper echelon, where officials have long been loath to bring bad news to an autocratic Russian leader who is seen as more isolated that at any time in his 22-year rule.” It shouldn’t be surprising that if you wipe out the 8 years of history from the time of the Nazi coup in Kiev, you would end up make such conclusions.