Vladimir Putin, the Man With His Shirt Off Caught With His Pants Down-- Part 2
Vladimir Putin, The Man With His Shirt Off Caught With His Pants Down-- Part 2
Surprisingly, the former KGB Colonel, FSB head, superspy and Russian strongman has been reduced to covering his rear and delivering spin which is as comical and patronizing as his asset on Pennsylvania Avenue. Comical, not in the sense of funny, but absurdity. His attempt to claim that Navalny is an Agent of the "US Special Services" is a diversion, typical of the way Russians "change the subject" when caught lying, as they seek escape in a fusillade of "whataboutism", as I described yesterday in Part 1.
Reality is that the fact Navalny is still living is not proof that he was not targeted by Putin's FSB for assasination with Russian made Novichuk. It is proof that the team that was deployed was incompetent, failed, was a Keystone Cops Amateur Hour operation, and that the individuals involved are likely going to disappear after a decent interval.
His argument that if he really wanted Navalny dead, they would have "finished the job", reads like a bad script from a 1980's Mafia B Movie, in which a botched execution backfires on the author and they do so much spinning of cover stories that they could masquerade as a Hannukah Dradle.
His statement that the fact that he let Navalny be moved to Berlin is proof of non-involvement in his poisoning is a transparent lie, as it is known that the Russian Hospital holding Navalny was under orders to lie, saying he wasn't poisoned, and at first refused to allow him to be transferred. It was only immense pressure from the Germans, including the threat of sanctions and cutting off the Russian-German pipeline deal which forced Putin to relent and allow the transfer. He wanted to "finish the job" but couldn't.
The statement that Navalny is an operative of US Special Services and that his poisoning was contrived to frame himself and the Russian State could have been written by Alex Jones, or Q, of QAnon, or Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell. At least Vlad didn't bring up Hugo Chavez.
Also of interest is his continuing lie that Russia had no involvement in interfering in the 2016 election, or 2020 for that matter, when his Internet Research Agency Trolls have been nailed repeatedly hacking everything and everyone, conducting misinformation, and data theft. Putin claims it was all made up to undermine Trump's Presidency. (Read, expose my asset) Additionally Putin has openly deployed his GRU to train, and support Neo-Nazi terrorist groups from the US and Europe right in his own home town, St. Petersburg. And not least, the White Supremacist and Secessionist groups currently threatening Civil War in the US have been granted asylum and/or allowed to open offices in Moscow, then provided logistics and funding by Russian Oligarch cronies of Putin himself, such as Alexander Ionov.
One has to ask, "what is he doing, what is happening"?
Reality is that he is positioning himself for a Joe Biden Presidency, and the simple fact that "playtime" is over. Therefore, he is conducting a fictional narrative, a revisionist explanation of the last five years, to exonerate himself. He is not, in my view doing this because he wants to accommodate or adapt to what the US does in terms of policy changes. He is now fighting for his own survival in Russia for the first time in 20 years. Why, you may ask.
Putin came to power in the year 1999, in the context of the Chechnyan conflict, riding in as the strongman who would restore order and put down the Insurrection. His slogan was, "we will beat to death in the Outhouse anyone who supports or harbors terrorists". Russia under Putin has been in many ways a bubbling cauldron of growing resistance, in which interaction with the West, the Internet, and the aspirations of the generation coming of age since Putin's rise, have combined to create a legitimate movement in Russia for Democracy, and against the decades of Kleptocracy which has devastated their economy throughout his 20 year reign. Navalny is the symbolic head of that movement.
Putin has seen this before. He was KGB "Rezident" in East Berlin when the Wall came down. He had a front row seat to watch Solidarnosc in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, bring down the Polish regime, and likewise Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. Soviet occupied Eastern Europe was roiled by revolution within a very short period of time, three years in fact, leading to the humiliating collapse of the Soviet Union itself. He is perceptive enough to recognize the difference between unrest and revolution.
Therefore, he has undertaken some Intelligence operations which out of a certain desperation, were ill conceived, sloppy, transparent, and which are now being exposed.
The exposure of these operations are likely timed to coincide with the Electoral College vote this past Monday, cementing Biden's claim to the Presidency. Keep in mind, the Navalny poisoning occurred in the Summer. The hacking of the US Government has been ongoing since March. The question must be asked, "was the Trump administration sitting on the intelligence on these Russian operations in order to propitiate and protect Trump, as well as Putin"?
It is well known that any official coming into the Oval Office to brief Trump on Russian operations against us would be screamed at, threatened with termination and thrown out. This was documented as he refused briefings on Russia's bounty payments to the Taliban, weapons sales to the same, and cyberattacks along with disinformation from the Russian GRU Troll farms. One can ask if investigations of these operations were actively blocked, or suppressed, and whether or not we are only hearing of it now because the Biden transition team is now getting briefings from our Military/Intelligence agencies. There has been testimony in Congress to this effect by officials fired by Trump this year. Could the suppression of these revelations be the actual reason that the transition team was denied for so long access to briefings? Was the Trump National Security team under orders from Trump to cover for his pal Putin, with whom Trump was having weekly phone conversations since early this year?
So, the answers to these questions will define to some degree how Biden goes about dealing with Putin and the Russian State. The American Security experts who were purged by Trump around the Impeachment are in the wings and shaping Biden's thinking. They. Know. Everything.
Putin is now completely exposed, because he miscalculated on the US election. He, like Trump, never expected the covid Pandemic to do the political damage to Trump that it did, and was of the belief that Trump had clear sailing to re-election. Putin also made the mistake of projecting his own Russian mindset and personal history onto US Politics. He believed that in the aftermath of the George Floyd demonstrations and rioting, that Americans would rally around Trump as the "Law and Order President", as did Russians after the Moscow Apartment bombings in 2000 which led to his own election victory. Instead, many Americans were repelled by Trump's appeal to Dogwhistle Racism. Putin's attempts to divide Americans was successful, but not enough to help reinstall Trump. And finally, Putin mistakenly believed that Trump's "control" of the US Supreme Court was his Ace in the hole. That was his biggest miscalculation.
As a result, Putin, assuming a second term or more from Trump, set into motion an array of operations out of the arrogant belief that Trump would remain in power to continue covering up for him, and blocking investigations into these operations. Trump assured Putin of a second term, and likely told him, "I'm only going to have my people in place when this is over, and no one will stand in my way".
Clearly this has not worked out for either. Therefore, Putin has a huge mess to clean up, at home and abroad. He has been "caught with his pants down". Now that we can see the outlines of a Biden Presidency happening, you can expect a frequency of escalating lies, cover stories, accusations, denial, fabrication, and "maskirovka" which will even outnumber eight Centuries of Russian Czars and Soviets.
I believe these revelations, coming out now, are a message being delivered to Joe Biden from our most patriotic and thoughtful opponents of the Trump regime in our National Security apparatus, (active and retired) that Vladimir Putin is at his weakest point. For a variety of reasons, domestic opposition, health possibly, economic sanctions and the threat of more, the Putin regime can now be considered vulnerable. Therefore Biden must not only take into account US strategic interests in his policy deliberations, but must give great thought and care to the benefit and welfare of the Russian people as their new ascending movement of young people becomes more prominent in Russian life.
Russia itself and it's people represent a great and beautiful Nation. Right now, they just need some "tough love".
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/17/europe/putin-annual-press-conference-intl/index.html
