Shadow boxing is well-known as a useful exercise for a boxer warming up in preparation for the real fight against a living opponent. So useful, in fact, that Vladimir Putin has decided to test it on a larger scale. Much larger. He has for some months been waging a shadow war against the West, so cleverly disguising his attacks as random acts of vandalism, arson, or assault and battery, that we in the West haven’t even been certain whether there is a single opponent for us to fight.

I’ve given examples of this before (see 7/5/24: “The Sum of the Parts: Greater Than the Whole?”): an arson attack on a museum in Riga, Latvia; fires at a warehouse in London and a shopping center in Warsaw; foiled plans for explosions and arson attacks in Germany; attacks on individuals in various countries, including one fatal shooting in Spain, etc. For the most part, local “talent” — frequently amateurs — are recruited to commit the crimes, giving the Kremlin the safe haven of deniability.

You never see it coming; and when it hits you, you have no idea where it came from. The individual incidents are so seemingly random and disconnected that finding the commonality among them can require months of intensive investigation, and even then are difficult to prove.

But not even Vladimir Putin can hide in the shadows forever. By stepping up the nature, the frequency, and the seriousness of his attacks, he has made it indisputably obvious that he is, once again, the diabolical puppet master behind the curtain — though, of course, he continues to deny, deny, deny.

Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence uncovered a plot by the Russian government to assassinate Armin Papperger, chief executive of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, the largest producer of the 155-mm. artillery shells that have been vital to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s war of attrition. Rheinmetall is also in the process of opening an armored vehicle plant inside Ukraine in the coming weeks — which, needless to say, is not going over very well in the Kremlin. [Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, July 11, 2024.]

These findings were shared by U.S. intelligence with German authorities, and the plot was foiled. But it was also found that this was just one of “a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who were supporting Ukraine’s war effort.” [CNN, id.]

The German government has stated that it is “taking reports of a plot to assassinate . . . [Mr. Papperger] very seriously and will not be cowed by Russian intimidation.” [Matthias Inverardi, Matthias Williams and Steve Holland, Reuters, July 12, 2024.] Mr. Papperger himself has echoed these statements, and has expressed his appreciation for the security measures that have been taken to protect him.

A U.S. official stated that, even aside from the attempts to eliminate specific “enemies” of the Russian regime, Russian subversive activities throughout Europe have increased in the last five or six months, including the “targeting [of] buildings, facilities, companies, and people involved in the supply of weapons to Ukraine.” [Reuters, id.] Other German defense-related companies have increased security measures as well, including Hensoldt (producer of radar technology for the IRIS-T air defense system used in Ukraine); Diehl (manufacturer of the IRIS-T); and BAE Systems.

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And while Europe, the United States, and the rest of the free world are occupied with neutralizing this new security threat, Russia is busy plotting its next series of attacks, the goals of which appear to be twofold:

First, and more pressingly, to disrupt the flow of weaponry and ammunition to Ukraine; and in the long run, to undermine and destabilize, little by little, the governments of the United States and its allies, and their interrelationships, making it possible — without the disastrous effects of an actual, expanded shooting war — for Putin and his principal allies, China and North Korea, to step in as leaders of their perceived “new world order.”

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It took six years of all-out war to smash Hitler’s dreams of world domination under Naziism. The Soviet Union’s brand of Communism lasted for seventy long years before dying of its own internal rot. How long will it take to overcome the most recent threat of Putinism?

Hopefully, not long enough for it to take root. For, make no mistake: the world would not long survive under the aegis of the already failed systems of communism and fascism. Putin and his cohorts belong, not on their imagined thrones, but on the scrap heap of history. For the free world, failure is not an option.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/13/24