To holmertz: Just a pawn

[PaulVDV]

Thank you Gert,

I will answer you with what I also sent to Mariusz.

According to Prof. K. Malfliet (university KU Leuven), Putin is a pawn in Russian chess, but also no more than a pawn.
He plays the role of the unassailable autocratic leader, but only as long as he has the confidence to take that role.
The Kremlin knows what it wants to do.
Putin is the mouthpiece, the designated leader by the Kremlin.
The aim of the Kremlin is to re-establish Russia as a world power and to restore the former Russian sphere of influence.

So, in reply to your text:
Are there any Russians in top positions who realize that the war will bring disaster to their own country?
If so, are they powerful enough?

Best regards,
Paul

[holmertz]

Hello Paul,
I must say that is a theory I haven't heard from anywhere else. So who exactly are these anonymous men of "the Kremlin"? Foreign minister Lavrov, press secretary Peskov? Or some little green men working in the basement who never show their faces to the public? It sounds like several other "deep state" theories. I am rather of the impression that fucking Putin is "the Kremlin", and that idea seems to be shared by analysts a lot more clever and well informed than I. But Putin is giving an appearance of getting increasingly isolated, keeping a physical and political distance to those who should be his closest allies. I would be surprised if there are no hard feelings even on high levels against fighting a war on a "brotherly" nation.
Regards,
Gert

[holmertz]

I tested my theory of a TE censorship on dirty words. Maybe there was another problem yesterday. ;-)

[PaulVDV]

Gert, do you mean that you do know dirty words ???

[PaulVDV]

Hi Gert,

It would be better if you were right of course but ...

I quote once again what the professor of KU Leuven explained in a newspaper.
Professor K. Malfliet is a Belgian Eastern Europe expert and professor emeritus at KU Leuven.
From 2010 to 2013 she was dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

I would like to send you the link to the online article but it is only in Dutch.

Quote:
"What exactly that 'Kremlin' behind Putin means is difficult for Westerners to understand. It is a kind of conglomerate of the political, economic and military elite.
It is an unofficial network that is very difficult to detect. It secretly works out its strategy.
It is a very different way of working than a democracy. What can be kept secret remains secret.
And they shouldn't take legislatures into account.”

[holmertz]

Paul,
I am sure ***** is backed up by a number of leading military men and corrupt oligarchs, but I doubt that at least the oligarchs share his obsession with the Russian sphere of influence. Do they care about anything but money? They may overthrow him if they start losing their billions because of sanctions, not because the war is going one way or another. I really think the policies of "the Kremlin" very much express *****'s own ideas.
Gert

[PaulVDV]

Hi Gert,

I doubt whether sanctions will make the regime change its mind. In fact, they must have factored that in anyway. Or they must be very stupid.
Hopefully I'm horribly mistaken.

A harsh sanction would be to cut off Russia from international payments by disconnecting Russian banks from Swift.
But I hear that the EU is waiving this sanction for the time being because certain member states fear the impact on their own economies, because of large interests and investments of banks in Russia...

As for Russia's energy supplies, the physical energy supplies were never touched during the annexation of the Crimea.
Will they be doing this now?

Again, I hope it turns out better than I fear.

Regards,
Paul