In January 1943, the NAZIs were losing WW2. NAZI territorial expansion into North Africa and Russia failed. Peace was a logical decision.
Instead, on February 18, 1943 NAZI Propaganda Minister Goebbles gathered the NAZI elite in the Berlin Sportspalast and demanded they support ‘Total War’. No surrender. Use all weapons at their disposal. Mobilize older men and teenagers to fight. Twenty-Six months later, after millions more died, Goebbels and Hitler were dead.
Putin’s territorial expansionist invasion into Ukraine is failing. This is Putin’s War, not Russia’s War. Now is a good time to negotiate an end.
Instead, Putin is mobilizing more troops; escalating the war and threatening a ‘Total War’ with nuclear weapons.
Globalization Changed Everything
Putin is 70-years-old. He is three generations out of step with the desires and aspirations of young Russians who want jobs, families and the ability to pay their mortgage; just like the average Saskatchewan twenty-something.
Putin’s War is 20th Century Imperialism. Young Russians don’t want it. They want to drive German cars; use the Internet; text on their South Korean Cellphones; type on their American computers; and use goods from China. Their world is nothing like Putin’s.
Change is in the Wind
Belarus and Chechnya, ‘vassal states’ controlled by Russia are NOT mobilizing.
Dagestan, with its own Dictator, is another Russian Vassal State that borders Chechnya. It is mobilizing. Citizens of Dagestan are resisting.
More than 300 Dagestan soldiers have been killed, fighting in Ukraine. Wounded rates are usually five times those killed suggesting at least 1,500 wounded or taken prisoner.
Belarus, Chechnya and Dagestan exist because their armies are backed by the Russian Army. As the Russian Army weakens, Independence Movements in these states will grow.
Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Sergey Melikov of Dagestan were appointed by Putin and may be the first to face rising independence movements.
Pragmatic Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov is the youngest and the smartest of the three. It appears he pulled his army out of Ukraine in late August and sent them back in, in September. But if Putin’s influence declines and the Russian Army weakens, leader Ramzan Kadyrov will pull his army out of Ukraine to strengthen his power at home.
If an independence movement grows in Chechnya, Kadyrov will probably declare independence from Russia, stay on as Leader and establish relations with the rest of the world.
Belarus and Dagestan won’t be far behind.
It has been 100 years since the Russian Revolution and there is still turmoil. Leaders, like Putin, have tried to re-establish the Russian Empire. Young Russians have moved into the 21st Century. Time for their leadership, and ours, to do the same.
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Moose Jaw Today, the Moose Jaw Express, its management, or its subsidiaries.
