Against the ropes, Putin accelerates Russia's move towards fascism

AFP reports that,

"US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday (13 Aug. 2015) to express "grave concern" about increased separatist attacks in Ukraine, a senior State Department official said." (AFP : 14/08/2015) (my emphasis)

Over the last few days mounting international concern has been growing over the assaults staged by Putin's Russian soldiers and his rebel-proxies on Ukrainian villages in eastern Ukraine.

As reported by Nash Jenkins (left),

"Separatist insurgents staged assaults on Ukrainian villages on Monday, reports Reuters. State officials say the attacks featured the heaviest shelling in the region since February." (Time : Aug. 11, 2015) (my emphasis)

Mark Piggott further informs us that,

"According to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,, "200 insurgents used tanks to storm" the area. The President's office said he would now be speaking to senior military figures to forge a response to "the rise in the number of attacks, particularly those using artillery fire, by the Russian-terrorist forces."

Ukraine fears the rebels are attempting to secure Mariupol, 30 miles to the south of Starohnativka and Novolaspa, providing a clear corridor to Crimea from rebel-held areas. Ukraine's defence ministry said the incident was "a dangerous indication of a further escalation to come." (International Business Times : August 10, 2015) (my emphasis)

 

This assault by Putin's Russian soldiers and rebel-proxies has been brewing for months.

What, therefore, has compelled Putin to 'throw caution to the wind' by launching this assault, knowing full well that the international community will view it as him simply trampling all over the Minsk2 protocols?

Even the 'soft-on-Putin' 'fragrant' Federica Mogherini, (Head of the EU's External Action Service) (left with Putin) has had to have her EU department come out with a rather 'soft' admonishing statement about Putin's renewed military assault in eastern Ukraine.

"The renewed escalation of the conflict raising the number of casualties, as a result of attacks on several government controlled areas today and in the night of 10 August on Starohnativka, violates the spirit and the letter of the Minsk Agreements....

The Minsk Agreements must be implemented in good faith, starting with full observation of the ceasefire and genuine withdrawal of heavy weapons." (European Union External Action : 11/08/2015) (my emphasis)

Firstly, could it just be that Putin has been forced to stoke up his war with Ukraine to deflect the gaze of the Russian people from  all that food that he has decreed last week should be 'publicly' destroyed?

This public display of tons of food simply being destroyed has caused something of an outcry in Russia.

As reported by Anna Arutunyan,

""You can't just destroy food when there are so many people who have trouble feeding themselves," said activist Olga Saveleva, whose petition on Change.org had gathered over 320,000 signatures since Thursday.

 The measures are "absurd and grotesque," said Saveleva, who plans to forward her petition to Putin and members of parliament." (USA Today : August 8, 2015) (my emphasis)

Secondly, Evgenia Pismennaya and Ilya Arkhipov tell us that a rift seems to be developing between members of Russia's  Central Bank. Dmitry Tulin, "back as the bank's chief monetary chief", is challenging Governor Elvira Nabiullina, his boss at Russia's Central Bank. (left: Nabiullina & Tulin)

"... [Tulin's] challenge to the orthodox approach of his boss at the central bank, Governor Elvira Nabiullina, underscores the tension facing Russia’s economic policy makers as they try to steady an economy battered largely by forces beyond their control." (Bloomberg Business : August 13, 2015)

Furthermore, as Craig Pirrong (left) informs us,

"Wherever Putin and his economic advisers look, the scene is bleak indeed. The situation in China is particularly ominous, because Putin had grabbed onto China like a drowning man, hoping it would rescue him from the blows raining down from sanctions and the commodity price (read: oil price) implosion.

But the Chinese devaluation, combined with a litany of other grim statistics coming out of China, suggests that if China is not drowning itself, it is struggling mightily to keep its head above water." (Seeking Alpha : Aug. 13, 2015) (my emphasis)

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin (right) is correct in stating that,

""The latest examples of escalation of the situation were a deliberate and clearly planned operation both in Shyrokyne and Starohnativka. All these cases are examples of how the Russian side along with Donetsk and Luhansk tries to derail the implementation of the Minsk agreements," said Klimkin" (UNIAN : 13.08.2015) (my emphasis)

This current 'lashing out' of an angry Putin, by having his Russian soldiers and rebel-proxies gear up towards an all-out assault on Mariupol, also signifies a threatening indicator that his generals are simply not going to sit back whilst the US and other NATO forces continue to train Ukrainian soldiers.

 

As reported by Anna Nemtsova, (right)

"The Kremlin is worried about not just what the American troops are teaching the Ukrainians, but what they may be learning from them and the Donbas battlefield.

... Indeed, U.S. troops and Ukrainian troops learning from each other seems to be just the kind of thing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was worrying about when he called an emergency meeting of his security council on Wednesday.(12 Aug. 2015)" (The Daily Beast : 13.08.15) (my emphasis)

As the economic pressures against him increases, and a hairline crack between himself and the Russian people begins to emerge, Putin has no other choice but to accelerate his grip on the Russian people.

As  Anatoly Akhutin (left), a Russian scientist and philosopher, states,

"In his third term, Putin is a frank Stalinist. Honestly, the grim Stalinist spirit has actually never disappeared, so its return is the most effective way for Putin to assert his authority," says the philosopher.

He suggests that in the coming years, Russia may expect fascization.

"[This is] Without metaphors. Archaizing traditionalism, nationalism, anti-intellectualism, xenophobia, a combination of megalomania with paranoia, corporate isolation of power, the cult of the leader – these are all the obvious features of the Putin regime and the elementary definition of fascism,” (UNIAN : 13.08.2015) (my emphasis)

(to be continued)