Will Putin's 'siloviki' now allow Putin to destroy Russia?

With the Russian economy teetering on the edge of collapsing into 'freefall', and Trump moving closer to taking over the reigns in the White House, panicked Putin is throwing everything at Ukraine to 'break the will' of the people of Ukraine, and to ensure that any 'peace negotiations' about his war with Ukraine will be entirely on his terms.

As Max Seddon (right) reports,

"He [Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian tycoon] warned that “the world is on the brink of nuclear war” after Kyiv fired US- and UK-made long-range missiles into Russian territory, and Putin responded by firing an experimental nuclear-capable ballistic missile at Ukraine.
...

Malofeyev (left), however, argued that if the US did not agree to roll back its support for Ukraine, Russia could fire a tactical nuclear weapon. “There will be a radiation zone nobody will ever go into in our lifetime,” he said. “And the war will be over.” (Financial Times: 2 December 2024( (my emphasis) (cf also: Moscow Times: 3 December 2024)

Furthermore, as Newsweek reports

"Chinese banks are refusing to work with sanctioned financial institutions in Russia, delivering another blow to the economy, which has been hit hard by Russian leader Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
...
Now trade between Russia and China faces another barrier after most Chinese banks terminated their relations with Russian credit institutions, general director of investment and consulting firm First Group, Alexey Poroshin, told the Russian daily broadsheet newspaper Izvestia." (Newsweek: 3 December 2024) (my emphasis)

 

Newsweek: 3 December 2024 

Besides Ukraine, Putin is further beset by problems in Syria and Georgia, as reported by CNN.

CNN: 2 Dec 2024 : YouTube

It is therefore no wonder that, as reported by the Times of India,

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a massive defense budget for 2025. Putin allocated a staggering $126 billion to national defense. The record defense budget amounts to 32.5 percent of Russian government spending. Russia's military spending has surged dramatically in the past two years." (Times of India: 3 December 2024) (my emphasis)

Times of India: 3 December 2024 

It is thus no co-incidence that one is reminded of the Holodomor 'genocide' (1932 to 1933) perpetrated against the people of Ukraine by Stalin (right), 

 "... as a means to punish Ukrainians for resisting Soviet policies and to suppress their nationalist sentiments." (Wikipedia)

In 2024, Putin's current 'insane' assault on the people of Ukraine is, likewise,

"... a means to punish Ukrainians for resisting his invasion of, and theft of, Ukrainian land, including Crimea, and to destroy their democratic sentiments."

Putin may wish to believe that the West will buckle under the weight of his insane and indiscrimanate near 'carpet' bombing in Ukraine, as well as his closeness to making a reality of his 'nuclear' threat, but this is not so.

US President Biden (left: with Zelensky), as reported by The Associated Press on Wyoming Public Media,

"The U.S. is preparing to send Ukraine an additional $725 million in military assistance, including counter-drone systems and munitions for its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which could indicate more of the longer-range missiles are headed to the battlefield.
...
President Joe Biden has pledged to spend all of the military assistance funds Congress approved this year for Ukraine before the end of his administration on Jan. 20, which before Monday's announcement included about $7.1 billion in weapons that would be drawn from the Pentagon's stockpiles." (The Associated Press on Wyoming Public Media: 3 December 2024) (my emphasis)

Furthermore, as Nicholas Cecil reports,

"The West should give Ukraine more weapons now to strengthen its hand in possible peace talks, Nato’s chief is urging. 

Mark Rutte (right) issued the rallying cry for more military aid for Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels.

“We will all need to do more,” he said.

“The stronger our military support to Ukraine is now, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table.” (The Standard: 3 December 2024) (my emphasis) 

The Independent on MSN: 6 Dec 2024

What is even more frightening for Putin is the fact that,

"Ukraine has conducted a test on new domestically made missiles and is ramping up missile production, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.

Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app that he had received
reports from his military on the test.

"We can thank our Ukrainian missile developers. We are speeding up the production," he said, without providing further details." (Yuliia Dysa (right): Reuters: 3 December 2024) (my emphasis)

Will Putin's 'siloviki' now allow Putin to destroy Russia?

  

 

 

(to be continued)