No! Not those sabers!

Unfortunately, we’re not talking about Aram Khachaturian’s famous Saber Dance, for that would be evidence of the creativity and beauty of which the Russian soul is capable — the soul that seems to have been buried beneath the dung heap that is today’s Kremlin.

No, we’re talking about the metaphorical sabers that Vladimir Putin and his cohorts are so fond of rattling at the world whenever things aren’t going so well for them.

Which is now.

Putin’s “special military operation” — more accurately known throughout the world as his war against Ukraine — isn’t going according to plan. Of course, it hasn’t been from the very beginning. What was supposed to have been a smash-and-grab operation of a few days or weeks at the most, is now rapidly approaching the three-year mark, with no end in sight. His recent gains have been measured in figurative inches rather than miles, slowly, and only painstakingly achieved through the loss of countless thousands of young lives.

And recently, the unthinkable happened: Ukraine turned the battle against the invader, daring to attack Russian territory . . . the first time anyone has done that since the end of World War II . . . even coming as close as Ramenskoye, a district within the Moscow region just an hour’s drive from the Kremlin itself. One woman was killed, three people wounded, and high-rise apartments damaged and burned.

Yet the Russian rhetoric never changes. The truth is meaningless, and only the bravado remains. Following Tuesday’s attack, our old standby, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, had this to offer:

‘There is no way that night time strikes on residential neighbourhoods can be associated with military action.

”The Kiev regime continues to demonstrate its nature. They are our enemies and we must continue the special military operation to protect ourselves from such actions.” [Lidia Kelly, Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn, Reuters, September 10, 2024.]

Pardon me, Dima, while I drag out the laughing man again:

Thank you; that always makes me feel better.

Once again, I have to ask, even though I’ll never receive an answer: Do you really believe this sh*t that you throw at us??!!! Do you honestly believe that we don’t remember who started the f*cking war??!!! Well . . . do you, Dmitry?????

And of course, we’ve heard from the likes of Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, tossing about the old nuclear threat . . . though he always does that, doesn’t he?

Then we were told that Russia’s official protocol as to the permitted use of nuclear weapons was being amended . . . as though that protocol was ever going to stop them from doing what they damn well pleased in the first place.

But now, we have an added feature. Ukraine has for some time been pushing the United States to permit the use of U.S. long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, whereas they have thus far only been available for use against Russian troops within Ukraine. And Putin has regularly threatened reprisals if that were to happen.

This week, however, he has taken it one step further, telling reporters on Thursday:

“This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” [Avery Schmitz, CNN, September 12, 2024.]

And that, I’m afraid, is no laughing matter.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/13/24

Postscript: As of this writing, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss Russia/Ukraine issues. Immediately upon returning to London, he is scheduled to fly to Rome to meet with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni of Italy, which presently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialized nations.

You can be sure I will be following the reports of those meetings as they are made available.