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Falling ratings even more likely to lead Putin to large war than they were before 2014, Larionov says

Russia's military aggression in the Donbas devastated and empoverished Ukrainian territories under the Russian occupation (Image: Novosti Segodnia)
Russia’s military aggression in the Donbas devastated and empoverished Ukrainian territories under the Russian occupation (Image: Novosti Segodnia)
Edited by: A. N.

Over the last three months, the ratings of Vladimir Putin and the Russian authorities have fallen by almost 20 percent, down to a level not seen since the protest era of 2011-2012. His ratings then led him to invade Ukraine, Viktor Larionov says; now, they are likely to lead him to launch a far larger and bloodier conflict.

The reason for that is this, the commentator says. [quote]“If in 2011-2014, … the threat to the regime, if it existed, was only in the heads of Putin and his entourage [but] today, it is really visible to the unaided eye” and has been “established by the efforts of Putin himself.”[/quote]

Remains of a Russian tank T-72 of the latest modification B3, which is possessed only by the Russian regular army, destroyed by Ukrainian artillery fire during a Russian attack near Debaltseve, Ukraine in March 2015. Image: censor.net.ua
Remains of a Russian tank T-72 of the latest modification B3, which is possessed only by the Russian regular army, destroyed by Ukrainian artillery fire during a Russian attack near Debaltseve, Ukraine in March 2015. Image: censor.net.ua

 

And that is something that Putin and his people in the Kremlin not only understand very well but see only one way out: the unleashing of war, but this time “not in the form of ‘a small but victorious’ one but rather in a large and bloody one, but hopefully without the application of nuclear weapons.”

[quote]“The goal of this war is not the recovery of ratings as was the case in the era of ‘Crimea is ours’ but rather the introduction of martial law which will allow the regime to deal with dissatisfaction and establish a pure and unconcealed dictatorship. The variants, besides ‘a liberation campaign on Kyiv,’ are not that many,” Larionov says.[/quote]

Russian mercenary at the devasted Donetsk airport in Donbas, Ukraine (Image: LB.ua)
Devastation at the Donetsk airport caused by the Russian military aggression in Donbas, Ukraine (Image: LB.ua)

 

“In this connection,” he continues, “the murder of ‘DNR’ head Aleksandr Zakharchenko after which the pro-Kremlin ‘media’ began to write that Ukraine supposedly has moved its forces up to the borders of ‘the republic’ must be viewed as very serious indeed.”

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Edited by: A. N.
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