Does that sound bass-ackwards to you? Of course, it does. In fact, I can almost hear Aristotle rotating in his grave at the very thought. But it appears to be just the sort of impossibility that a certain modern-day world leader would like to turn into a reality. And from all appearances, he’s been working hard at doing just that.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that that world leader is none other than Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. But how does he propose to do this? And, for Heaven’s sake, why?

Well, it’s no secret that he is heavily invested in becoming, not just Tsar of All the Russias, but King of the Whole Freakin’ World. And to do so, he must of course destabilize and conquer every other major power on Earth, right? But that’s no easy feat. And it could very well backfire. A full-blown attack on, say, Great Britain or the United States would bring instant retaliation from the entirety of the NATO membership, and . . .

Bye-bye, Russia.

We’ve long since figured out that Putin’s a little bit — all right, pretty high up — on the crazy spectrum. But make no mistake: he is not stupid. Nor, by all accounts, is he suicidal. So his problem is figuring out how to reach his objective without getting himself and his entire country smashed to smithereens. And his solution seems to be to do it bit by bit, and preferably in a way that lays the blame at someone else’s — anyone else’s — feet. And when all of those seemingly unrelated successes are eventually added together, the sum total will be:

All hail, King Vlad!

*. *. *

You want examples? Okay, here you go . . .

— An arson attack on the Museum of Occupation in Riga, Latvia.

— Fires at a warehouse in London in March and a shopping center in Warsaw in May.

— Several people arrested in Germany in April on suspicion of planning explosions and arson attacks.

— Numerous hacking attacks and spying incidents reported in several European countries.

— A Russian defector shot dead in Spain, and another Russian man — Leonid Volkov, a well-known dissident living in Vilnius, Lithuania — attacked with a hammer outside his home.

— An anti-terrorism investigation in France after a suspected bomb-maker nearly blew himself up. (No one said these people were geniuses.)

In each case, local officials have linked the incidents to Russia. And last month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg commented:

“We are threatened by something which is not a full-fledged military attack, which are these hybrid threats … everything from meddling in our political processes, (undermining) the trust in our political institutions, disinformation, cyber-attacks (…) and sabotage actions against critical infrastructure.” [Ivana Kottasova, CNN, June 30, 2024.]

Such incidents are not new. And assassinations of Putin’s opponents — whether by blatant poisoning or shooting, or thinly-disguised “suicide” or “accident” — have been taking place for years, from Aleksandr Litvinenko to Aleksei Navalny. But, as stated by Rod Thornton, a senior lecturer in defense studies at King’s College London:

“There has definitely been an increase over the last few months in these particular types of operations. It is something that the Russians are ramping up.” [CNN, id.]

While Russia has not claimed responsibility for these incidents, Thornton added that: “It’s long been a part of Russian military doctrine to try and avoid trying to face NATO on a battlefield, because they know they would lose to NATO forces. What they are doing is undertaking activities which are below the threshold of armed conflict, so they are not inciting an Article 5 response from NATO.” [CNN, id.]

Remember that Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine was supposed to have been quick-and-dirty, in and out within a few days or a couple of weeks. He clearly didn’t count on two things: the guts and determination of the Ukrainian people, and the backing of the West despite Ukraine’s not being a member of NATO. Perhaps he has learned from that mistake.

*. *. *

So, without listing each and every suspicious incident over the past twenty years — including a few attacks within Russia itself that may well have been self-inflicted — there are strong indications that Vladimir Putin is trying to prove that Aristotle was wrong, and that the sum of all of his lesser incursions will prove more effective than one all-out invasion.

In other words, eight equal slices of pie will outweigh the original, uncut pie.

Seriously, Vlad?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/5/24