President Trump and NATO Have Declared War on Russia and Putin Is Oblivious
Paul Craig Roberts
John Helmer believes that Putin’s strategy of being toady to Trump and relying on Trump to solve the Ukraine conflict for him has failed and that Putin will have to abandon his naïveté for realism or be removed. https://johnhelmer.net/the-nuclear-option/
Putin’s inability to understand that Russia is at war with the West and that his prevarication for 4.5 years has vastly widened the war and totally changed its character has created the opinion among Russia’s patriotic elements that “Putin is a lost cause.”
That has been my conclusion for some time. Putin is still thinking and acting as if the conflict is limited to Donbas and that Russia is on the verge of winning as hardly any of Donbas remains in Ukrainian hands. Putin recently told Trump that the Europeans are a war party because they don’t understand that Putin’s “Special Military Operation” has succeeded in clearing Donbas of Ukrainian forces. Putin mistakenly thinks that the war is over and all that remains is the settlement. Putin dismisses the increasingly effective attacks on the Russian motherland as “terrorist events.”
Putin’s extraordinary blindness to reality is difficult to understand. The conflict is not a special military operation. It is a war with the West that has moved far from the Donbas front line to deep within Russia with successful Ukrainian strikes guided by US and NATO targeting systems on Russian refining capability, fuel depots, airports, and civilians. Putin is so out of it that he is immune to the humiliation that Russian patriots are experiencing from having to suffer increasing successful attacks on their homeland while their leader, advised by two Russian traitors Kirill Dmitriev and Elvira Nabiullina, relies on Trump to save the situation for Russia and for business deals for Russia’s oligarchs..
Helmer reports that two days ago on July 8 President Trump signed along with the NATO heads of governments a statement that commits NATO “to counter the long-term threat Russia poses to Euro-Atlantic security and stability” and obliges the NATO members to pay Trump and the US for protection from this Russian threat — “more than $50 billion in new procurements and…collective manufacturing capacity.” The asserted “long-term threat Russia poses to Euro-Atlantic security and stability” is asserted, not specified or defined. In fact, it does not exist, but facts no longer matter in the West. And facts will not protect Putin and Russia or Iran.
How can Putin be relying on Trump when all evidence makes it clear that Ukraine’s drone war-fighting against Russia is being integrated within the West’s intent to bring down Putin and Russia? As Helmer reports, Trump has told Zelensky that the US is going to provide Zelensky with the right and the means to produce in Ukraine the US Patriot and Tomahawk missiles with which to war on the Russian motherland.
All of this has been completely clear since Washington’s overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014 and installation of an anti-Russian puppet government. It has been made clear many times, every one of which was ignored by Putin. Reality has proved to be too much for Putin. He has proven himself to be unable to cope with clear and obvious challenges.
Now it has again been made clear to Putin by Trump. On June 17 at the G-7 meeting in France Trump signed this statement:
“We agree to increase the delivery of air defense capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities. We are also ready to consider extending to Ukraine the benefit of licenses to allow for an increase in Ukraine’s military production…We commit to increase the pressure on the Russian war economy. In this context, we will strengthen our sanctions, including those on the oil and gas sectors.” This is a declaration of war on Russia! Why can’t Putin, the Russian High Command, the Russian media recognize a declaration of war against Russia?!!
And the Kremlin Fool is relying on the White House Fool to negotiate peace!
Note that Zelensky, not Putin, was the featured guest at the NATO Summit July 8 in Ankara. Gilbert Doctorow in my opinion correctly describes the meaning of the NATO Summit for Russia:
“What does all of this mean for Russia? Firstly, that Trump’s USA was, is and will long remain an adversary, or, to be less ambiguous, an enemy. Secondly, that whatever Trump does with and to NATO does not depend on his relations with Vladimir Putin. Therefore, it is senseless for the Russian leader to flatter Trump, as he does at every opportunity, and to seek Trump’s further involvement in peace talks. All that Putin achieves by talking up to ‘daddy’ is to reduce Russia’s perceived sovereignty and deterrence.” https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/the-ongoing-pro-ukraine-propaganda?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1203055&post_id=206248615&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=dx5km&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
My view is that as a Russian leader Putin is a complete failure. This perception is growing in Russia.