Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday hinted that the Ukraine war could soon end. Speaking to reporters after marking Russia’s Victory Day parade, Putin said: “I think that the matter is coming to an end.” The comment was made in response to a question about whether Western help to Ukraine went too far. The Russian leader said: “They started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day. I think it is heading to an end, but it’s still a serious matter.”
Putin’s remarks come as Kyiv and Moscow observe a three-day ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine this weekend. The truce was announced on Friday by US President Donald Trump after negotiations brokered by Washington. European Council President Antonio Costa on Thursday said the European Union was prepared to hold separate talks with Russia and Ukraine “when the right moment comes."
He can’t end the war. He’d have to admit that 500,000 young Russian men are not fighting at the front lines, but are dead and not coming home. The loved ones are going to hang him when they find out.
I’m not following it closely enough anymore to have good guesses as to his real plan now, but I think that it is and always has been safe to say that it is not what he’s saying intentionally to the public.
Surely he is trying to do a Machiavelli as usual, to perform in some way that he believes will cause the people he want to do the things he wants them to of their own volition, not realizing they’re really playing into his hands.
He seems to have been having more trouble with that than in the past, though. I suspect its harder to pull off when everyone is wise to it.
Fuck, dude, they might hang him even before that, given how ratfucked their economy has become. It sounds like their bond market is just outright collapsing and he just doesn’t care.
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/russian-debt-defaults-surging-quarter-193321893.html