Cracking Under Pressure

The ongoing counter-offensive by Ukraine, wisely focusing on Cherson, has caught Russian forces by surprise and appears to be quite effective. Russian troops seem unprepared, under-equipped, badly trained and unmotivated, and the pinpoint strikes against Russian ammunition depots and support lines have rendered Putin's machinery of terror severely crippled.

Our support for Ukraine must not falter. Russia is getting their ass kicked, and defeating the aggressor is paramount to stopping Russia from going on a mad killing spree to conquer more territory. The world needs to say "no" with as much force as we can possibly muster.

Political commentators are saying that Russia must not be humiliated, because it would make them vengeful. To the contrary, I think Russia must be beaten to humiliation and beyond, have their teeth pulled out and never again be trusted. The monster that has been ravaging Ukraine must not be allowed to continue its killing spree. Hurting the feelings of a murderer should not be a concern. The current regime in Russia has shown its true nature, and it does not deserve our respect.

Something is Rotten in the State of Russia

In fact, the headline is an understatement. Pretty much everything is rotten in Russia, from the highest level of their totalitarian government down to the attitude and behaviour of a large portion of the Russian population. Russians are not cut off from news from the outside world -- they actively choose not to believe it. In their willful delusion they believe that Putin is not a criminal butcher of tens of thousands of innocent people and that Russia is a great country. In fact, Russia is a country in shambles, and they are going further downhill at an alarming speed.

While ordinary Russians ignore reality, their murderous dictator continues his pointless slaughter of Ukrainians, sacrificing tens of thousands of his own troops in the process while gaining close to nothing of value.

If the Russian people wanted him gone and took action, Putin would be dead and his war would be over in no time. Instead, the atrocities continue. This is not the work of one man, or of a small group of totalitarian rulers in the Russian government. The general population is definitely to blame as well, and unless Russians wake up to reality, they will be hated for generations to come. For good reason.

Running on Fumes

Russia has severe problems recruiting for their army, even for safe, well paid and ordinarily attractive non-combat positions. Fighting morale in the Russian army is so low that they now have to assign Chechnyan soldiers to police their own people, to make them obey orders and stop them from deserting. Ukraine is hitting military air fields and ammunition depots in Crimea, scaring Russian civilians in the illegally annexed region and making them leave by the thousands.

Russian units are exhausted, both in terms of being worn down from non-stop combat without relief, and in terms of their numbers dwindling due to heavy losses. Wherever the Russian army attempts to gain ground, it is met with fierce and unrelenting resistance from Ukrainian forces. Russia is blaming successful Ukrainian strikes against military targets on accidents caused by their own incompetence, rather than admitting that Ukraine is now fighting back and hitting them hard where it hurts.

Ukraine has the moral and economic support of the entire Western world. Russia stands increasingly alone, keeping only a token amount of allies like Syria, Chechnnya, Belarus, Iran and North Korea.

We are getting closer to the end of this war, and it's looking to be a total and devastating loss for Russia and Putin.

Belarus Bizarre

A journalist in Belarus has been arrested for speaking the wrong language in a public place. The language was Belarusian.

Let that sink in: the oppressive regime of Alexander Lukasjenko is now arresting people for speaking Belarusian in Belarus.

It is abundantly clear that Belarus is now back to the Soviet era, run by a Kremlin-appointed puppet government which is trying to erase Belarus and Belarusian culture from history. Seventy years of Soviet rule failed to do that. Lukasjenko and Putin will fail as well.

Demonization

Russian propaganda is desperately trying to push the lie that Russia is being "demonized" by Western countries. Reality check: you are not demonizing a demon by calling it what it is. Russian leadership is indeed a demon, evil through and through. It is far beyond change and needs to be exorcised. Making deals with the devil is not going to work -- all that can be done is to slay the beast before it consumes us all.

Go Home

In the G20 meeting, the Russian representative Sergey Lavrov left the room on several occasions when people spoke negatively about Russia's despicable actions in Ukraine, and he left early, right after his own speech which was nothing but transparent lies and propaganda. It's as if Russia stomped their feet and said "if you don't play nice with us, we will take our toys and go home".

Fine. We don't want to play with you, Russia, and we don't care for your toys. Nobody likes you, nobody believes your lies, and nobody wants to be your friend, because you are a bully, hiding your insecurity behind a pile of nuclear weapons. Yes, it's scary that you have them and that you resort to threats to use them so easily, but apart from those, you have nothing, and it shows. Most of your nuclear weapons are probably not even in working condition after the corrupt neglect that seems to have been standard procedure at all levels in the Russian army for the past three decades. It would be horrible to see that put to the test, but if even a single Russian nuclear weapon detonated on foreign soil, Russia would not even be a country for much longer.

The only problem here is you, Russia. You invaded Ukraine. Go home, and stay there. You will not be missed.

 

Monster

Despite its oppressive, totalitarian rule and its imperialistic plans for world domination, the Soviet Union was governed by rational people. Misguided, for certain, and evil, but rational. Current Russia, however, is not.

Russia is now the monster we used to be afraid that the Soviet Union could be, but never quite was. Russia is committing horrendous crimes against humanity, and denying it in the face of irrefutable evidence. An entire world is watching in horror while a mindless, ravaging beast is running amok in the middle of Europe, murdering people by the thousands without hesitation or remorse, with no consideration to anything but its own delusional plans for ruling the world by fear and aggression.

We are still in shock, paralyzed by a nagging feeling of disbelief. Surely this can't be happening?

Well, it is. And if we don't act now to kill the monster, it will eat us too. There is no reasoning with it, because it is driven by rage and fueled by hate, leaving all rational thought behind. For the sake of humanity,  the monster must be put down.