Only if hundreds of thousands of Russians demonstrate in the streets of virtually every Russian city and town soon, and continue do so, can they have any assurance that Vladimir Putin will not plunge them and the world into a horrific nuclear war.
Seeing that tens of thousands demonstrated in Moscow was encouraging. The people of Russia must turn out in great enough numbers every day that arrests do not deter most other demonstrators.
On, 21 August 2022, President Putin threatened the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine War! President Putin’s threat followed months of similar threats by lower ranking Russian officials, most notably, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin said he was not bluffing. I believe him.
In all likelihood, Putin has already picked the date, the time, and targets of the attack. Here is how I see the start of Putin’s Nuclear War.
· Putin will soon hold “elections” in Donbas
· Within hours of those sham elections, the Duma will vote to annex Donbas, the territory linking Donbas to Crimea, and the already annexed Crimea
· Putin will demand that Ukraine remove its troops from “Russia”.
· Ukraine will refuse
· Nuclear war of unknown magnitude will ensue
Apparently erroneously, I concluded long ago that the Soviet notion of “winning a [protracted] nuclear war” had died among the ashes and debris of Chernobyl. Putin’s speech on the 21st has proven me wrong.
At some point, a short-sighted Russian strategist apparently came up with the stupid notion of “Escalating [with nuclear weapons] to Deescalate” a war. A nuclear attack on Ukraine will amount to betting millions of Russian lives on an untried and idiotic idea. Putin appears to think the idea has merit.
President Putin must have forgotten Chernobyl. Within a week of the •meltdown•, the Soviets went from denying anything had happened to asking for help from the west, from the whole world. The Soviets admitted they could not deal with the casualties, the mitigation, and the cleanup of Chernobyl — much less of nuclear attacks on cities.
I recall that hundreds, if not thousands, of Western doctors and other experts went to Chernobyl to help the Soviets recover from the disaster. Embarrassingly, I cannot find the relevant statistics. Regardles, the people of Russia know that Chernobyl overwhelmed the Soviets. To state the obvious, if President Putin starts a nuclear war, Western doctors and other experts will not be going to Russia to aid with casualties or anything else.
Finally, I realize how easily I can ask Russians to turn out in Russia. Still, if 1000 Americans picketed the Russian embassy, Putin would simply snicker and continue his plans. Only people in Russia can influence this man.
