Many (including me) compare Putin to Hitler.
Yes, they are both political monsters, dictatorial psychopaths, geostrategic cyclophrenics and geopolitical maniacs.
Both are guilty of terrible crimes and will go down in History as brutal scoundrels.
Yet there are also huge differences between them.
Today everything seems to me like poker between two bandits (two pahanAs) with marked cards and overbluffing. Prigogin's bluff practically succeeded because he made a laughingstock of Putin with very weak cards and achieved much more than he could have with such weak cards.
Nevertheless, Prigozhin is doomed, because the word of the Big PahAn means nothing. Prigogin would accidentally slip in the bathroom, fall and fatally hit himself 43 times.
But Putin is also doomed. The outwitted and outplayed, disgraced and insulted Big PahAn is no longer an authority who can control the gang and guarantee success and as well life "according to concepts" (zhit' po poniatiam).
As one analyst put it, the sloppy Prigozhin caught the sloppy Putin at a "gop-stop" [The term 'Gop stop' (drawing from English) means a 'mugging' or armed hold-up, with the purpose of robbing or attacking someone]. Which delegitimizes him in the eyes of the whole "fraternity" (bratva). And they won't forgive that. The boss ("ringleader") of the pack flinched, got scared, showed weakness and could no longer be a leader, because it was seen that he was no longer able to guarantee the interests and security of the pack, of the gang. Therefore, he will inevitably get a "pero" (dagger) in his heart.
06/25/2023
Putin looks to me like Gorbachev after the failed coup of August 1991. He supposedly returned with a triumph, supposedly the world rested, supposedly things went away. And after 4 months his state collapsed and he became Mr. Nobody.
06/25/2023
My friend is sad:
- There was not a coup, even as a farce, like in August 1991!
I answer him:
- Either way, Russia has disgraced itself extremely in the eyes of the whole world! She looks like an alcoholic who rolls up his sleeves, threatens to fight, and falls dead drunk under the table.
Russia is a mess where an ex-prisoner can call the president an asshole and get to Moscow with his gang without any problems.
And Putin became a caricature: coward, running in disgrace, making a deal with a thug who blackmailed him. And this is a man with a nuclear briefcase!
06/24/2023
Russia is at a bifurcation point. Even the smallest impact can have huge consequences.
All scenarios, even with negligible probability, are possible: from a storm in a teacup to a catastrophic tsunami.
A black swan flaps its wings over Russia.
The Hour of the unknown unknowns!
06/24/2023
