Will Putin's 'siloviki' rescue Russia from Putin's dangerous paranoia?

It is rather ironical that, as reported by Susanna Twidale (left),

"Russian flows of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, remained at zero on Tuesday after Russia scrapped a Saturday deadline to resume flows following maintenance.
...
Nominations for Russian gas flows into Slovakia from Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point were about 36.7 million cubic metres (mcm) per day for Tuesday, little changed from the previous day, data from the Ukrainian transmission system operator showed.
...
Russia's Gazprom said on Tuesday that it will ship 42.4 mcm of gas to Europe via Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point, in line with the previous day." (Reuters : 6 September 2022) (my emphasis)

So while Putin's gas flows to the EU via Ukraine, nonetheless we now have, as reported by Paul Kirby (right),  Putin declaring that,

"But Mr Putin said Moscow would react to a cap by halting supplies completely.

"We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil - we will not supply anything," he said, if it went against Russia's interests. (BBC News : 7 September 2022) (my emphasis)

As also reported by Apoorva Kaul (right),

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow will stop the export of oil and gas if price caps are imposed on Russian energy. In his address at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on 7 September, Putin termed Europe's idea to introduce price caps on Russian energy as "stupid," The Independent reported. He underscored that Russia will not "supply anything at all if it contradicts" the interests of Moscow." (RepublicWorld : 7 September 2022) (my emphasis)

It is rather interesting to note that whilst Putin was delivering his threats against the EU in Vladivostock, approximately 3986 miles to the East of Ukraine, CNN’s Vasco Cotovio (left) reports that,

"The Ukrainian military says it has repelled several Russian offensives across the battlefield, but has remained silent about its own counter-offensives in the northeast around Kharkiv and in the south near Kherson." (CNN : 8 September 2022) (my emphasis)

Sky News : YouTube : 29 August 2022

Not only is Putin seriously worried about the funding of his war with Ukraine, as the EU begins to turn off the taps of Euros flowing into his coffers, Matt Murphy now also informs us that,

"Russia has been forced to buy military hardware from North Korea as sanctions squeeze Moscow's ability to supply its military, the US says.

A US official revealed Moscow is the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.

And they said that Russia could be forced to buy additional North Korean weaponry as the war dragged on.

Buying from North Korea is a sign of "severe supply shortages", they added." (BBC News : 7 September 2022) (my emphasis)

CRUX : YouTube : 6 August 2022

And whilst many ordinary Russians may be bemoaning the fact that, as reported by BBC News,

"European Union foreign ministers have agreed to suspend a visa agreement with Moscow, making it harder for Russian citizens to obtain entry to the bloc.
...
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the substantial increase in border crossings from Russia made it necessary to suspend the agreement.

"This has become a security risk for these neighbouring states," he said. "In addition to that, we have seen many Russians travelling for leisure and shopping as if no war was raging in Ukraine." BBC News : 31 August 2022) (my emphasis),

we now learn from Amélie Bottollier-Dopois that,

"The United Nations said Wednesday there are credible accusations that Moscow's forces have removed children from Ukraine to Russia for adoption as part of larger-scale forced relocations and deportations.

"We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure to grant Russian citizenship to children without parental care, and that these children would be eligible for adoption by Russian families," [Ilze Brands Kehris, the assistant UN secretary-general for human rights] said." (Barron's (Agence France-Presse) : 7 September 2022) (my emphasis) (cf also: Briefly South Africa : 7 September 2022)

It has taken three months for the UN to heed Ukraine's President Volodymir Zelensky warning of Putin's forced deportation of thousands of Ukraine's children to Russia. 

NBC News : YouTube: 2 June 2022 : YouTube

This evil theft of Ukrainian children by Putin stems from his near paranoid concern about the rapidly declining population of Russia.

In my very first blog post I wrote about Putin's public thievery of the "Kraft ring".

“You know, I do not remember either Mr. Kraft or the ring," Putin said, as reported by AFP. What thief, in the history of thievery, consciously committed a public act of thievery and afterwards claimed a lapse of memory of even meeting the person from whom he stole? To allegedly prevent a diplomatic scene, Robert Kraft then publicly stated that, yes, he did give the ring to President Putin. But, the plot thickens. Later Putin, rather nonchalantly, offered Mr. Kraft another ring in recompense, also suddenly claiming that the stolen ring was originally given to him by Mr. Kraft. Amazing how Putin emerges from a total lapse of memory to total recall." (blog entry : Tuesday, 10 June 2014) (cf also: John Breech : CBS Sport : 3 February 2017)

Putin is now trying to replenish the Russian population by stealing Ukrainian children.

As James Franey also reports,

"Vladimir Putin has revived a Soviet-era award aimed at halting Russia’s plunging birth rates amid the Ukraine war.

The despot has brought back the honorary title ‘Mother Heroine’, established under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and scrapped after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 ....
Russia’s population has been in near-constant decline for decades, falling to 145.1 million after a decline of around 400,000 people in early 2022. (Mail Online : 17 August 2022) (my emphasis)

Economic Eye : YouTube : 26 April 2022

Putin's military blunders in Ukraine, his decling revenues, his theft of children, and his reliance on receiving bullets and rockets from Kim Jon Un of North Korea, paints a rather graphic picture of his decline into dangerous paranoia.

Will Putin's 'siloviki' rescue Russia from Putin's dangerous paranoia?

 

 (to be continued)