Putin concludes that only war can now save him

Jason Easley (right) reports that,

"Donald Trump’s presidential campaign woes have gotten bigger as his campaign manager Paul Manafort’s name has turned up in a ledger of illegal payments that were made by a network in Putin’s sphere of influence in Ukraine." PoliticusUsa : Sun, Aug 14th, 2016) (my emphasis)

As also reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Mike McIntire and Barry Meier,

“Paul Manafort is among those names on the list of so-called ‘black accounts of the Party of Regions,’ which the detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine are investigating,” the statement said." (New York Times : Aug. 14, 2016) (my emphasis)
They also report that these,

"..handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials." (ibid Kramer, McIntire, and Meier) (my emphasis)

Let us also remind ourselves that  Josh Rogin (right) reported that,

"The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington." (Washington Post : July 18, 2016) (my emphasis)


Meanwhile, as these direct links between Paul Manafort and corrupt payments by the Yanukovich Party of Regions continue to emerge,

"Ukraine's Defence Intelligence warn that combined Russian-separatist forces, operating in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are plotting massive provocations along the whole contact line." (UT : Aug. 12, 2016)

Even the OSCE, with Putinversteher Walter Steinmeier (left) now its Chairperson,

"... is ready to establish nine control bases along the fragment of Ukraine-Russia border in the occupied Donbas region." (UT : Aug. 12, 2016) to monitor the provocations of Putin's Russian soldiers and rebel proxies in the Donbas.

 

That Putin is beginning to run scared is, as Jill Dougherty (right) explains,

"...the consensus among Russia-watchers at the Lennart Meri security conference is summed up by Fiona Hill, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe. 
“We talk an awful lot now about our feelings of insecurity towards Russia,” she says, “but I think it’s a pretty obvious fact that the Kremlin is also running scared, and we really have to start to inspect why is that the case?”

The Kremlin is frightened about its grip on the political situation at home - and the geopolitical situation abroad. Russia is trying to deter the West in a very aggressive way because it realizes it is weaker - economically, militarily, and in terms of soft power." (Wilson Centre : Jul 18, 2016) (my emphasis)

This is perhaps best illustrated by Putin's glove-puppet, Dmitri Medvedev, announcing last Friday (12 Aug., 2016) that, Russia may completely break diplomatic ties with Ukraine, thus consigning the current Minsk2 agreements to the dustbin of history.

Unlike before, Putin cannot use the current Olympics in Rio as a smokescreen to avert the eyes of the world away from his preparations for war with Ukraine in both Ukrainian Crimea and the Donbas.

Nor can he disguise the fact that,

"Russians are feeling more indifferent towards President Vladimir Putin than at any time before the Ukraine crisis, according to independent pollster the Levada Center.
.....
Putin’s biggest flaws continue to be his administration’s fight against corruption and failing to raise living standards. Nearly a third of Russians (29 percent) agreed his position on corruption was his biggest failure, while 27 percent felt the inability to increase wages, pensions and living standards was his major problem in the last year." (Damien Sharkov: Newsweek :  8/8/16) (my emphasis)

Under these circumstances Putin will lash out. 

War, he concludes, is the only way that he can save himself.

(to be continued)