WASHINGTON — I have been following the pledging of combat tanks to Ukraine by the European allies. It is impressive. I do not think it is an exaggeration to claim that Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine has roused all of Europe’s wrath. Even little Portugal has gotten into the act.
I think it is long past time for Putin to come to the negotiation table. Are his poorly trained and poorly armed soldiers hidden away in their trenches a match for NATO? I have my doubts.
Back in the late 1980s, I met President Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected president of Russia and possibly the last. In preparation for the meeting, I counseled with several experts on Russia, the most impressive of them being Robert Gates, at the time the head of our CIA. They all agreed on one salient point: Russia’s longing to be considered a European nation. I listened to my Prokofiev and read up on my Dostoevsky before meeting the great man. In my brief conversation with him, I told him of my admiration for Russian culture, especially Russian literature. He seemed genuinely touched and grateful. Boris was indeed a European. I am not sure what Putin’s response might have been. Possibly he would thump his chest and let out a yell.
I doubt Putin is considered an aficionado of Prokofiev or Dostoyevsky today. His experience with the arts has been limited mostly to the art of self-defense. I recall an early photograph of him sitting on a horse somewhere in the Russian outback. He was not wearing a shirt and the photo was supposedly showing what an outdoorsman he had become. As I recall, he is an expert in martial arts. Well, those days are long gone. I am predicting he will not get through 2023 before turning room temperature. My guess is that he is today in the hands of the Kremlin quacks, or he may be headed for a more abrupt ending. You cannot lose over 100,000 of your countrymen in a war of dubious value and survive.
As I have said, the number of combat tanks being volunteered to Ukrai...
No hoodwinking or hornswoggling here.
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