Vladimir Putin Makes Bizarre and Desperate Appeal for ‘Normalized Relations’ and the End of Sanctions – Opinion

Now imagine you’re a despot with a cruel plan. You launch an unprovoked military war against a non-threatening small neighbor. The operation has gone pear-shaped. You are not only losing a few hundred soldiers per day to this military operation (Russia releases the first official casualty count from its Ukraine adventure), but also a dozen countries have sent large amounts of highly capable weapons to your invaded country. Western sanctions are crippling your country. Importantly, those who maintain you at power are having their personal financial balances smashed. Your ability to find a way out is limited because you’ve successively upped the ante until now you need total possession of the country you attacked and the eradication of its government to claim you won. However, you are acutely aware of the fact that a strongman can only win if he is victorious.

How do you make a living?

Well, if you are Vladimir Putin, you try to gaslight the world into believing that you justifiably attacked Ukraine because they were “unfriendly” to you and that the sanctions slapped on you by governmental and private actors are irrational, unfair, and uncalled for.

)Russian President Vladimir Putin called Friday for the “normalization” of relations with other states, saying Moscow has “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”

Speaking via video link at a ceremony raising the Russian flag on a Kaliningrad ferry, Putin called for global coordination, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week.

“I think that everyone should think about normalizing relations and cooperating normally,” he said.

He said Russia saw no need to aggravate tensions with other countries, claiming that Moscow’s actions in Ukraine came only “in response to unfriendly actions toward Russia.”

Russia seizes nuclear power plant as Putin calls to ‘normalize’ relations

“There is no need to escalate the situation, impose restrictions. We fulfill all obligations,” he said. “If someone does not want to cooperate with us within the framework of single cooperation, and by doing so harms themselves, they will, of course, harm us, too.”

Mind you, this all takes place in the context of a phone call with French President Macron where Putin told him he intended to pursue the war in Ukraine until the last dog is dead (see After Putin Phone Call, Macron Fears ‘the Worst Is yet to Come’ in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine). And where he also claimed that the imagery we’re seeing of devastated Ukrainian cities and dead Ukrainian children is just “disinformation.” (Sounds like he’s taking lessons from Fauci and the Branch COVIDians in calling anything he doesn’t like “disinformation.”)

This plea reminds me of the very bizarre speech that he delivered a week earlier, where he encouraged Ukrainian troops to forget about the oath of allegiance. It is a sign that the sanctions imposed on Russian have hit in a way he did not anticipate and that he’s trying to find a way of getting out from under them. His financial advisors assessed the situation and concluded that Russia will find it very difficult to function with all of these sanctions. It is also a sign that he’s not about to enter into a major economic partnership with China and throw off the dollar as the international reserve currency.

A friend of mine appeared on CNN tonight. He believes that the longer this war lasts, the greater the chance Ukraine will “win.”

“I doubt the Russians are capable of executing this innovative approach.” […]It will be a war to the death if this happens. @general_benTalks to @CNNLearn how Ukraine’s military is successfully countering Russian war tactics. pic.twitter.com/drfadnGP9J

— CEPA (@cepa) March 3, 2022

I have to admit I’m doubtful, but if Putin is already trying to get out from under sanctions after only a small scale military success, it is a sign that things are going much worse than we know. We can enjoy War’s classic tune while we wait.