Will the citizens of Russia now begin to hold Putin accountable for his paranoid actions.

The speech of Zelensky to the UN Assembly (21 September 2022), more than anything else, rose above many of the self interests of many countries whose representatives listened intently to what he had to say.

Not only did he warn the sitting members at the UN Assembly about the dangerous universal legal implications to their own security and border protections of Putin's invasion of, and war with, Ukraine, he also made those sitting members aware of the criminal nature of Putin's invading army.

Putin's war with Ukraine, he informed the UN Assembly, is having global economic repercussions throughout the world and, more than anything else, is actually negatively impacting the free flow of grain and other foodstuffs to countries desperately in need of this food to prevent the starvation of their peoples.

He laid out a peace formula for the UN that :-

• punishes crime
  
• protects life
• restores security and territorial integrity
• guarentees security
• and provides determination
  

At the end of his speech he received a standing ovation from those UN members present at his speech.

Whether the formula that he presented to the UN Assembly will, in future, be adopted by members of the UN Assembly now remains to be seen.

PBS News Hour : 21 September 2022 : YouTube

In an interview with Tom O'Connor (left), Sergei Lavrov, that dyed-in-the-wool Soviet Foreign Minister and stand-in for Putin at the UN Assembly meeting, yet again trotted out Putin's delusional reason for his current war
with Ukraine. 

• Lavrov: With its actions to nurture a Russophobic neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, deploy military equipment and turn its territory into a springboard for containing Russia, the West left us no choice but to conduct a special military operation.
• "I would like to emphasize that the collective West, led by the United States, is openly seeking to defeat Russia "on the battlefield." (MSN (Newsweek): 21 September 2022) (my emphasis)
  

Referring to the proposed 'sham' referendums that Putin's proxies threaten to hold in Ukraine's Donbas, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Lavrov (right) went on further to argue that,

"...We see the desire of people to be together with Russia, and therefore we shall treat their choice with respect. The corresponding intentions have been voiced recently by the leaders of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. All of them are entitled to use the right to self-determination in accordance with the UN Charter." (ibid Tom O'Conner)

Meanwhile, following on from Putin's announcement to the Russian people of what he termed as a "partial mobilization" and, incidentally, the first in Russia since the end of WW2, Laurence Peter and Laura Gozzi report that,

"Russian police are reported to have arrested hundreds of protesters rallying against the Kremlin's decision to call up thousands of extra troops to fight in Ukraine.

Russian human rights group OVD-Info put the total at more than 1,300. The largest numbers arrested were in St Petersburg and Moscow.

Dozens were held in Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, and Yekaterinburg.

Flights out of Russia sold out fast after Vladimir Putin's announcement.

Pictures on social media showed long queues at border posts, and on Google, the search for "how to leave Russia" skyrocketed." (BBC News : 22 September 2022) (my emphasis) (cf also: CNN: 21 September 2022, Express: 21 September 2022, amongst others)

These demonstrations follow on from the recent report of Allison Quinn (left) that,

"More and more Russian officials are urging Vladimir Putin to get the hell out of the Kremlin as Moscow suffered another series of humiliating defeats in Ukraine this weekend.

Just one day after several municipal deputies in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg called on the State Duma to try the Russian leader for treason, their colleagues in Moscow joined in and demanded he step down because his views are “hopelessly outdated.”" (Yahoo (Daily Beast article): 11 September 2022) (my emphasis)

Putin's paranoid reactions to the recent successes of the Ukainian army in regaining a large swathe of Ukrainian territory that Putin's army seized at the beginning of his recent war with Ukraine is now, finally, filtering through to the Russian people.

Now the youth of Moscow and St. Petersburg are been dragooned into replenishing the thousands of Russian lives that have already been lost in Putin's war with Ukraine.

Will the citizens of Russia now begin to hold Putin accountable for his paranoid actions?

(to be continued)