Putin is a paper tiger

Russia is broken from inside

THE WORLD CLOSELY FOLLOWED the latest happenings of the weekend in Russia, when internal politics shaked the dictatorship and the warlord Prigozhin announced his march to Moscow. Knowing Russia from the point of view of a violated nation, we always knew that Putin is much more a paper tiger than he portrays himself to his internal audience, but even taking that into account, we were taken by surprise.

I very much apologize with the tigers🐯 for the comparison

Obviously we had high hopes that the war with Russia could be coming to an end, especially when the rebellious troops approached their capital. The potential end of Putin's regime would very likely be the end of the invasion of Ukraine and the devolution of our stolen territory because the new Russian government would need to seek immediate support from the international community. Whatever unreliable would be the new forces in the Kremlin, they would be forced to negotiate in terms that Ukraine would certainly be in an advantageous position.

At the same time that loyalists in Moscow were crowding the airports to leave Russia, we were envisaging our millions of refugees abroad in a similar move but returning to motherland Ukraine instead of escaping like 16 months ago. Returning to our cities and helping to rebuild our families, our infrastructure, our project of developing a nation of the future. A nation that will be proud of itself and will inspire pride all over Europe and the world.

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It was close, but unfortunately, this time it didn't happen. Our optimism quickly dissipated when the troops were called back and the Belarusian dictator made an agreement to end the uprise. Feelings of disappointment replaced the enthusiasm, and the reality called back when a missile was shot down in Kyiv and killed at least five people.

Nevertheless, the episode showed us that Russia is broken from inside. According to Sun Tzu in the "Art of War", in war strategy, there's the principle of the single command, which Putin ignored by simply managing two armies at the same time: the regular defense apparatus and the mercenary forces of Wagner. No one is able to be victorious when sharing command in this fashion, especially being both so powerful to the point of overlapping each other.

A ruler who ignores such basic postulates of war, is not someone who is ready to keep going too far. We can expect many more failures to arise in the next few weeks. This attempted coup in Russia is a clear symptom of how things are rotten in Moscow.

I have a feeling that momentum is on Ukrainian's side, my friends. Every sign of fragility from the Russians is a source of strength for us. Russians now are frightened. They fear Ukraine because they know they are losing and will lose completely. We feed ourselves from their fear and it gives energy for us so we can make this counteroffensive the last and definite one.