How comforting! How reassuring!

Vladimir Putin says he “hopes” it won’t be necessary to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Putin has just starred in a film for state television titled “Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25 Years.” In it, he is interviewed — in English — by a Kremlin-approved reporter, while being given a tour of Putin’s luxurious Kremlin apartment, and served kefir (a sort of liquid yogurt) and gourmet chocolates.

While seated next to a portrait of Tsar Aleksandr III — himself a tyrannical 19th-century autocrat — Putin is asked by the reporter about the risk of nuclear escalation resulting from the “military operation” in Ukraine. His response:

“They wanted to provoke us so that we made mistakes. There has been no need to use those weapons … and I hope they will not be required. We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.” [Reuters, May 4, 2025.]

And then he shows the reporter his small private chapel, in which he supposedly kneels and prays on occasion.

This, from the man who still believes the breakup of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century” . . .

. . . who cites Ukraine’s desire to be admitted to NATO as the cause of his — Putin’s — invasions of 2014 and 2022 . . .

. . . who claims that it is Russia’s divine right to “take back” Ukraine as its territory . . .

. . . who declares an Easter ceasefire while continuing to bombard Ukrainian cities . . .

. . . who kidnaps and holds captive thousands of Ukrainian children for the sole purpose of turning them into model Russian citizens . . .

. . . who hypocritically attends church services while simultaneously ordering the destruction of a sovereign nation and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians.

*. *. *

In the obviously choreographed film — nothing more than a public relations attempt at presenting himself as the savior of the Russian people — he speaks of his 25 years in power:

“I don’t feel like some kind of politician. I continue to breathe the very same air as millions of Russian citizens. It is very important. God willing that it continues as long as possible. And that it doesn’t disappear.” [Id.]

What he should be praying for is that he doesn’t become the instrument of his own, and his country’s, disappearance. Because if he ever deems it “necessary” to resort to the use of nuclear weapons, he might want first to think back to the effect of the explosion at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear facility in 1986, which led to the contamination of some 58,000 square miles throughout Europe — the highest radiation levels being measured in Ukraine, Belarus . . . and Russia itself.

The use of nuclear weapons — even the lower-yield, tactical ones — could result in incalculable fallout . . . both physical and political . . . and an escalation from which the world might never recover.

*. *. *

There is a cautionary instruction that is taught to people first learning to use firearms: Do not put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to shoot.

That’s good advice, Mr. Putin.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/5/25