Putin — strategically idiotically — declares a ceasefire in Ukraine — purportedly so as to celebrate World War 2's Victory Day

28 April 2025

Talk about foolishly reversing . . .

. . . the Soviet Red Army's winning example on the commemoration of Victory Day.

Three days ago, I wrote about Russian president Putin's strategic incompetence.

Conveniently today, Putin re-demonstrated his lack of military will.

The strategically absurd timing of the following news says everything that one needs to know about Putin's penchant for engaging in dither-shining ineptitude:

By decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and based on humanitarian considerations, the Russian side is declaring a ceasefire during the days marking the 80th anniversary of Victory - from midnight on May 7 to 8 until midnight on May 10 to 11.

All combat operations will be suspended during this period.

Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.

In the event of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will deliver an adequate and effective response.

Think about this

Russia has just finished throwing Ukraine's Nazi-led forces out of Russia's Kursk region.

Instead of massively following up on that belated achievement, Putin announces a coming Ukraine War ceasefire. Evidently, so as to signal his continuing willingness to diplomatically cater to the same Western Oligarchs, who have been trying to dismember Russia for decades.

World War 2 Russia's Stalin, in contrast, would not have said anything about ceasefires. And would have continued the Red Army's swiftly moving obliteration of the Nazi forces arrayed against the Soviet Union.

In short

Paul Craig Roberts' dour assessment of President Putin remains accurate:

If he [Putin] won the [Ukraine] war, especially if he had done so right away, Russia would be recognized as a great power worthy of a Great Power Agreement.

Instead, by preventing the Russian military from winning, Putin has convinced the West that Russia is not a formidable military force, and that its leadership is irresolute.

Among the consequences, we have today the French and British considering sending their soldiers to fight against Russia in Ukraine. Only Putin’s irresolution could have convinced the British and French that they could take on Russia.

We also have Baltic countries with small populations engaging in unresisted and unanswered aggression against Russia. Both Estonia and Finland have moved to use military force to capture and detain Russian oil tankers. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/estonian-navy-detains-boards-russia-bound-oil-tanker-baltic-sea-2025-04-11/

If you were the captain of a Russian oil tanker delivering oil to somewhere in Europe, you might already be wondering why your government is fueling the ability of its enemies to wage war against Russia.

But when you are boarded by a two-bit country whose population is less than Moscow’s and the Kremlin does not intervene, what do you think about the world’s respect for your country?

You must be heart-broken. Powerful Russia humiliated by Estonia!

Putin does not think about these things. His focus is only on negotiation. He is wedded to it, firmly. He might even be a little crazed by it. It is all that is important.

He won’t respond to humiliations because it might queer the all-important negotiations. So the smallest countries on earth can humiliate Russia at will.

This must affect the Russian population, unless they have been so corrupted by Western “culture” that they are no longer Russian. That is the case with many of the Russian intellectuals. If Russia can’t be a part of the West, they feel isolated and alone. Decades of Washington’s propaganda succeeded in diminishing the Russian in them.

Roberts' perspective is strengthened by . . .

. . . Foreign Minister Lavrov's (probably regime-forced) 27 April 2025 torture-bashing at the hands of CBS News' — arrogant, ignorant, and idiotically abrasive — Margaret Brennan:

Face the Nation, Full interview: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on "Face the Nation", YouTube (27 April 2025)

A transcript of that interview can be found, here:

RT, Lavrov lays out Russia’s terms on Ukraine, Crimea, and nuclear arms (full interview), rt.com (27 April 2025)

If you watch (or read) the above-linked CBS News production . . .

. . . you cannot but be pained by Lavrov's having to sit through such a disrespectful display of American propaganda.

Lavrov's torture by dimwit session taking place to no conceivably valuable end, insofar as achieving Russia-preserving strategic aims are concerned.

Only an inveterate Western-oriented patsy like Vladimir Putin would have subjected his foreign minister to such belligerently 'American' mistreatment.

To my mind, this episode (again) demonstrates Putin's inability to grasp the simple principles outlined in Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

A constantly dithering politician-lawyer — like Putin — probably invariably makes for an irresolute and grossly inept existential war leader.

The moral? — Does gutless stupidity now rule the non-Western world?

If so, most of us on the planet are in for a painfully continuing ride into chaos. Directly so, at the hands of the insane and violently disintegrating West.

Stupidity on both sides has turned itself into a perpetual killing machine.

I am hoping, for human civilization's sake, that China's president Xi displays a more impressive level of spine-backed strategic acumen.

Xi's doing so might encourage the evolution of actually competent — and more peacefully oriented — American leadership in return.

PeteFree.com

Putin — strategically idiotically — declares a ceasefire in Ukraine — purportedly so as to celebrate World War 2's Victory Day