Putin invites evermore serious escalations
Paul Craig Roberts
In his latest statement on the prospect for the Ukrainian peace negotiations, John Helmer concludes that whether the latest US attack on Russia was directed at President Putin’s residence or at a component of the Russian nuclear command system, the evidence should be clear to Putin that his never-ending war is escalating as Washington gains confidence that it can overwhelm Russia’s deterrence capability.
As I have predicted from the beginning of the conflict, the strategic consequences from a never-ending war are extreme as unanswered provocations increase in their extremity. The Russian people are being exhausted by a conflict before the West ever gets directly involved.
Helmer wonders what Putin can do to stop the escalations his endless toleration has produced before nuclear Armageddon arrives.
Just as Putin sat on his butt for eight years, doing nothing while the West created a large well-equipped army for Ukraine, Putin again is sitting on his butt, so far for four years, piddling about with a conflict that has now widened into an assassination attempt on his own life or to test the vulnerability of Russia’s deterrence capability. Whatever this behavior is, it is not leadership.