Putin's desperation to regain his Czarist stature in the minds of the Russian people.

The noose is beginning to tighten around Putin's [Pu-truschev's] neck as the EU, NATO, the UK, and the US, implement financial and military-support strategies to enhance their support of Ukraine in its war with Putin [Pu-truschev]. 

On the NATO front, the Turkish government has finally relented in supporting Sweden's accession to NATO.

 As reported by Arthur Parashar (left),

"Turkish MPs have finally given Sweden the green light to join NATO, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance.

The key vote leaves Hungary as the only NATO member left to approve Sweden's application after 20 months of delays." (Mail Online : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)

Mail Online : 23 January 2024

Wrong-footed by Turkey supporting Sweden's NATO accession Victor Orban, Putin's [Pu-truschev's] proxy in the EU, is now scrambling to try and make amends with Sweden over his vociferous call NOT to allow Sweden to join NATO.

 As reported by Stuart Lau (left),

"If you want to join NATO, come and talk to me — that's Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's latest message to his Swedish counterpart.

"Today I sent an invitation letter to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ... for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s NATO accession," Orbán tweeted Tuesday.
...
Kristersson's office did not immediately respond to Orbán's invitation." (Politico : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis) 

 It is telling that Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (right) has not yet responded to Orban's sudden invitation, no doubt due to the fact that the EU, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda,

".... EU member states are ready to approve the aid package for Ukraine at the summit in Brussels on 1 February, regardless of whether Hungary supports it.

If Orban (left) continues to block the support package, the remaining 26 EU countries will decide to approve it, and preparations for such a scenario are already in full swing.
...
The sources stressed that if Orban decides to go this route, the EU could launch the next stage of punitive measures against Hungary, which could lead to the deprivation of its voting rights as a member state." (Ukrainska Pravda on Yahoo News : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)

 If Putin [Pu-truschev] is jumping up and down in anger in his bunker at Sweden within a hair's breadth of becoming a full member of NATO, he is apopletic with rage at the EU deciding to approve its E50 billion financial package in support of Ukraine by simply side-lining his EU proxy, Victor Orban.

Putin's [Pu-truschev's] rage is evidenced by his recent missile onslaught against the people of Ukraine.

The Independent : 24 January 2024

 As reported by Maryam Zakir-Hussain and Tara Cobham (left),

"At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said strikes throughout the country killed 18 people and injured more than 130 in his nightly video address." (The Independent : 24 January 2024) (my emphasis)

These assaults of Putin [Pu-truschev] against the civilian population of Ukraine has spurred on the military support of EU members and NATO to ensure that Ukraine can continue its devastating assault on Russia's military capabilities.

As reported by AP News,

" NATO signed on Tuesday a $1.2-billion contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the dwindling stocks of its member countries as they supply ammunition to Ukraine to help it defeat Russia’s invasion.
...
“This is important to defend our own territory, to build up our own stocks, but also to continue to support Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (right) told reporters.

“We cannot allow President (Vladimir) Putin to win in Ukraine,” he added. “That would be a tragedy for the Ukrainians and dangerous for all of us.” (AP News : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)

 Furthermore, as reported by Sabine Siebold (left),

"Germany will send six helicopters to Ukraine out of Germany's military inventory to be delivered from the second quarter of this year, its defence minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday, the first delivery of its kind from Germany.

The helicopters, called "Sea King" helicopters, should help Ukraine with everything from surveillance of the Black Sea to transporting soldiers, Pistorius said." (Reuters : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)

On the home front, Putin [Pu-truschev] is having to face escalating and dangerous criticisms, even in the face of,

"Russian lawmakers are weighing a bill that would grant the state power to seize property from people who criticize Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Criticizing the invasion, which began nearly two years ago, is effectively a crime already. But the new bill aims to make penalties even harsher.

The draft bill, considered by Russia’s parliament on Monday, would allow for the state to seize the property of Russians who have left the country and have criticized the war but who continue to rely on revenue from renting out their houses or apartments in Russia." (Bradford Betz : Fox News on Microsoft Start: 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)   

As reported by Steve Rosenberg (right),

"In a function room on the edge of Moscow, something unusual is happening.

A group of women are publicly criticising the Russian authorities. Their husbands are among the 300,000 reservists mobilised by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine in autumn 2022.

And they want them home.

"When will our husbands be considered to have discharged their military duty?" asks Maria. "When they're brought back with no arms and legs? When they can't do anything at all because they're just vegetables? Or do we have to wait for them to be sent back in zinc coffins?" (BBC News : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis) 

BBC News : 23 January 2024 : YouTube

Is it, therfore, any wonder that Putin [Pu-truschev] is, once again, threatening to use nuclear bombs against Ukraine?

As reported by Mark Trevelyan,

"The war in Ukraine has dented Russia's confidence in its conventional forces and increased the importance to Moscow of non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs) as a means of deterring and defeating NATO in a potential future conflict, a leading Western think-tank said on Monday.
...
Moscow denies wielding nuclear threats but several of President Vladimir Putin's statements since the onset of the war in Ukraine have been interpreted as such in the West - starting on day one of the Russian invasion [of Ukraine] when he warned of "consequences that you have never faced in your history" for anyone who tried to hinder or threaten Russia. (Reuters : 22 January 2024) (my emphasis)

Is it any wonder that, as reported by Stacy Liberatore (left), that,

"Humanity is still in a 'time of unprecedented danger.'

That is the conclusion of scientists behind the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic timepiece which indicates how close the world is to ending.

The clock was updated today and remained at 90 seconds to midnight - the theoretical point of annihilation." (Mail Online : 23 January 2024) (my emphasis)  

Mail Online : 23 January 2024

As Putin approaches his public annointing as the Czar of Russia in the upcoming Russian presidential elections, it should come as no surprise that he ([Pu-truschev]) will do anything to retrieve his status in the mind of the Russian people as the 'saviour of Russia'.

Putin is now desperate to regain his Czarist stature in the minds of the Russian people.

But who will the people of Russia be annointing Czar of Russia in their upcoming Russian presidential elections? Putin or Pu-truschev.

 Perkin Amalaraj and Will Stewart : Mail Online : 3 January 2024 

UPDATE 25 January 2024

 Tom Porter (left) reports that,

 "Russia is struggling to break through Ukraine's defensive lines because when its troops gather to attack, they're targeted by Ukrainian drones, a think tank has said.

An influential Russian milblogger noted that Russian forces were struggling to work out how to break out of the current stalemate, according to US think tank, The Institute for the Study of War.
...
It added that even forces gathering far behind the front line are vulnerable to attack." (Business Insider : 24 January 2024) (my emphasis) 

Added to which, as reported by Kate Nicholson (right),

"Vladimir Putin has said the war in Ukraine is “not the best” right now, suggesting Russia is struggling to make any significant gains.

The Russian president, speaking at a meeting of participants in some nation-wide family contests on Tuesday, suggested he still believes southern Ukraine will join the “common Russian space”.

But, Putin acknowledged that “the situation” on the battlefield “now is not the best and far from calm”.

According to the Russian state news agency, TASS, Putin was talking about the  eastern Donbas region and “Novorossiya” – which translates to “New Russia” – in particular. (Huffpost UK on Microsoft Start : 24 January 2024) (my emphasis)

Putin [Pu-truschev] is finally having to admit that his raison d'être for his war with Ukraine viz. his delusions about “Novorossiya”, for illegaly invading and annexing Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, his subsequent illegal invasion and occupation of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, and his current war with Ukraine that he started in 2022, is coming to an end in 2024.

                             

 

(to be continued)