Putin is inextricably trapped by what he has unleashed with his war with Ukraine.

Kenneth Rapoza informs us that,


"Russia has gone postal.

Not in the crazy sense, as the street term suggests. But in the sense that neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night can whither the Russian economy. At least that is Vladimir Putin’s view. Speaking at a Labor Day ceremony on May 1 in Moscow, Putin said Russia has proven it can weather the storm of sanctions, civil war in Ukraine and falling oil prices.

“The country’s [Russia's] movement forward has always rested on the shoulders of those who take responsibility onto themselves, who understand that their personal efforts and the fruits of their labor benefit not just individual enterprises, industries, towns or cities, but the whole country,” Putin said." (Forbes : 03/5/2015)

Spot the difference.

Is it any wonder that both Hilary Clinton and Prince Charles  likened Putin's actions in Ukraine to those of Hitler during the 1930's?

""Now if this sounds familiar, it's what Hitler did back in the '30s," Clinton said Tuesday, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. 

"All the Germans that were ... the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they're not being treated right. I must go and protect my people, and that's what's gotten everybody so nervous." (Hilary Clinton : The Washington Post : March 5, 2014) (my emphasis)

More than one year later,
 
"A Ukrainian soldier was killed and six others wounded over the last 24 hours," Andy Lysinko (right), Ukraine's military spokesman, said at a news briefing on Sunday (2/5/2015).
Lysneko added that the rebels used large-caliber artillery in violation of the Minsk protocol." (DW : 03.05.2015)

 The OSCE confirms the use of large-caliber artillery by Putin's proxies and Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine, in violation of the Minsk2 protocol.

"On 2 May, at 16:05hrs, the same SMM patrol visited the JCCC patrol base in Avdiivka (government-controlled, 15km north-west of Donetsk). Whilst there, the SMM observed what it assessed to be shelling by 152mm artillery. The SMM took cover in a nearby underground shelter and was only able to depart from the location following the implementation of a five-minute local ceasefire. The SMM patrol did not sustain casualties." (OSCE : 3 May 2015) (cf also: KyivPost : May 3, 2015)

Reports continued to flood in yesterday about the heavy escalation of Putin's proxies and Russian soldiers shelling Ukrainian forces in Shyrokyne.

"At 1815 Kyiv time the enemy began firing for the ninth time today on the Ukrainian positions in the village of Shyrokyne. 152mm self-propelled artillery systems are being used. As a result, residents of the eastern districts of Mariupol can hear powerful cannonade," (UNIAN: 03/5/2015)

The residents of Mariupol yesterday (03/5/2015) staged a protest against the demilitarization of Shyrokyne, as reported by UNIAN. (3/05/2015)

"Leaders of Mariupol public organizations and civil volunteers addressed those who gathered for the rally and called against the demilitarization of Shyrokyne. Civil volunteers also urged locals to get united, start digging trenches and supply food to Ukrainian troops." (ibid UNIAN) (my emphasis)

This escalation of the war between Purtin's Russia and Ukraine has been predicted from many quarters and for more than a month.

As David Blair and Tom Parfitt  recently reported from Moscow that,

"Russia is carrying out a new military build-up in eastern Ukraine, massing troops on the border and deploying advanced air defences inside its neighbour, according to the US State Department." (The Telegraph : 23 Apr 2015)

  Phil Stewart and David Alexander of Reuters have also recently (30 April, 2015) reported that,

"Russia's military may be taking advantage of a recent lull in fighting in eastern Ukraine to lay the groundwork for a new military offensive, NATO's top commander [Breedlove] (left) told the U.S. Congress on Thursday......
....
 "Many of their actions are consistent with preparations for another offensive," Breedlove said." (ibid Phil Stewart and David Alexander) (my emphasis)

Putin's war with Ukraine is setting the President of Kazakhstan's nerves on edge.

 Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post informs us that,

"In the past year, [President Nursultan Nazarbayev (right) of Kazakhstan ] has stiffened punishments for advocating separatism and upped efforts to move ethnic Kazakhs to where most of the Russians live, in the north of a nation as big as Western Europe......
......
[This follows on from],

"Russian President Vladimir Putin [who] stoked Kazakhstan’s fears last year when he gave the country’s leader a double-edged compliment: Nazarbayev “has performed a unique feat,” Putin told a group of pro-Kremlin youth activists. “He has created a state on a territory where there was never a state.” (The Washington Post : May 2, 2015) (my emphasis)

Putin's upcoming military parade in Red Square on the 9th May is arriving as he,

"....is enjoying sky-high popularity at home after successfully tapping a vein of nationalism over the Ukraine conflict. The humiliation that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union and end to Russia’s superpower status has to a large extent been erased by the Kremlin’s standoff with the US, which has been largely powerless to prevent Putin’s machinations in East Ukraine." (Ben Aris : Russia Insider : Fri, May 1, 2015) (my emphasis)

Putin may be basking in the sunlight of his sky-high popularity ratings at home, but these ratings are as a 'millstone around his neck' since it has shut off any earlier 'exit strategy' of his war with Ukraine from the tangled web of deception that he has so assiduously woven around himself, and by his voracious tapping into that Russian vein of nationalism over his war with Ukraine. 

(to be continued)