Just when you think it’s safe to go into the water . . .

*. *. *

*. *. *

and . . .

*. *. *

I think I’ll just go hide under a rock. Maybe someone could let me know when it’s safe to come out.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/9/24

There are times — I suppose we all have them — when the world’s drama just becomes overwhelming, and you need to get away from it all. Perhaps not literally, but at least mentally. Yesterday was one of those days for me, and — miracle of miracles! — there were actually some cheery items that made it into the news, when I wasn’t even searching for them. They all came to me compliments of CNN News, and of course, I have to share:

Lottery Win: This was a special story because the winner of the $5 Million scratch-off jackpot was a 75-year-old great-grandmother in Pennsylvania, one Donna Osborne, who had recently completed her treatment for breast cancer. She had given up on a flight she was supposed to have taken to Florida that was delayed and delayed, and she finally left the airport to return home, no doubt in a less-than-wonderful frame of mind. Stopping for gas, she impulsively bought a ticket at the gas station and scratched it there. The rest is history. And I can’t think of many people who better deserve that kind of luck. Use it well, Mrs. Osborne . . . and in the best of health.

Moulin Rouge: I wasn’t aware that the iconic windmill at Paris’ Moulin Rouge had lost its blades three months ago. No one seems to know just how or why it happened, but it really doesn’t matter. Happily, the world-famous cabaret was able to have its new blades installed before the Olympic flame passes through its Montmartre neighborhood on July 15th. Around 500 spectators attended the installation event, along with a performance by some twenty can-can dancers. Now, that’s one I would love to have seen! They do know how to throw a party in Gay Paree, don’t they?

Canine Chef: He was probably just trying to fix himself a snack, but a pup in Colorado Springs, Colorado managed to set his home on fire — well, the kitchen anyway. According to home security video footage, he accidentally lit the stove where some boxes had been placed when he tried to climb up, probably to see whether they contained anything edible. The good news is that the homeowners were awakened in time to put the fire out even before the fire department arrived, and no one was seriously injured — including the offending pooch. Lesson to homeowners: Keep flammable stuff away from the stove! Duh.

And finally . . .

Hermes: Not Just For Fashion: In Bulgaria, of all the surprising places, some local archaeologists unearthed real treasure this week while digging in an ancient Roman sewer: a well-preserved marble statue of the Greek god Hermes, said to be the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. That’s quite a lot of responsibility for one god to handle on his own, and all while also acting as the herald to the other gods. No wonder his scarves are so expensive!

I don’t know much about the Greek gods, but I will say this for Hermes:

Nice buns, dude!

They say you should always get off the stage while you’re hot, and I don’t think I can do much better than Hermes’ heinie. So on that note, I’m out of here until tomorrow. I feel better now.

TTFN . . .

Brendochka
7/9/24

Turkey . . . Hungary . . . Slovakia. As reported earlier today, all three lining up in obeisance to Vladimir Putin, backing his stance on the invasion of Ukraine and anything else he might demand of them. All three members of NATO, defying the solidarity of their fellow members. All three conveniently forgetting — or ignoring — the Soviet yoke thrown off by Eastern Europe just three decades ago.

Distressed by their inexplicable perfidy, I likened them to the Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I did not imagine that before the day was over, the Three Witches would become the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse . . . adding Poland to their number of evildoers.

Enough imagery. What happened while I was focused on events in Russia is that the President of NATO member Poland, Andrzej Duda, traveled to China on June 24th to meet with that country’s leader, Xi Jinping — avowed backer of Vladimir Putin and his war against Ukraine. The meeting at the Great Hall of the People included a full honor guard and a 21-gun salute. Duda reportedly told Xi that relations between Poland — which had once inspired democratic movements with its push for democracy — and China — which is a communist state — remain strong. [AP, June 24, 2024.]

Xi’s response: “Over the past 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, bilateral relations have maintained steady development, constantly injecting new vitality into the traditional friendship between the two countries.” [Id.]

How sweet! How heart-warming! How quickly we forget Poland’s Solidarnosc (Solidarity) movement of the 1980s, and then-President Lech Walesa’s ousting of communist rule immediately following his 1990 election.

I shudder to think of what he must be feeling at this turn of events, as he recalls the years of struggle to drag his country out of the Soviet Union’s oppressive control. Was it all for nothing?

Because here was Duda saying that Poland was aiming for closer commercial relations with China, even referencing Xi’s “Belt and Road Initiative” — an ambitious program designed to expand China’s political and economic influence as a means to overtake the United States as world leader. Make no mistake: China wants nothing less than world domination, no matter how long it takes to achieve it.

*. *. *

And meanwhile, back in the Kremlin . . .

There was my buddy Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, expressing Russia’s appreciation for the efforts of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban “to clarify the positions of Russia and Ukraine on resolving their conflict.” [Reuters, July 8, 2024.]

“Mr. Orban is taking a serious initiative to compare the positions of the different sides based on original sources, and we appreciate these efforts of Mr. Orban. There is a whole set of disagreements among the parties concerned, but at least Mr. Orban is making a very serious attempt to understand the essence of these disagreements, which is very much appreciated.”

Oh, yes — Mr. Orban is very serious indeed. It seems that on Monday, he also made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping on what Orban described as the third leg of a “peace mission.” Both the European Commission and the Ukrainian government have disavowed Orban’s efforts in this regard.

And not incidentally, the peripatetic Mr. Orban is due in Washington for the NATO summit this week. We’ll see how that goes for him.

*. *. *

So there we have it: the Four Horsemen, Russia, and China. A scenario beyond even my wildest nightmare imaginings. But it’s all too real.

And I haven’t even mentioned India yet.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/24

Just when you thought things were about as bad as they could get, along came Slovakia, to complete the circle.

While Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary’s Viktor Orban have been busy offering their professed expertise to Vladimir Putin in an effort to “settle” the Ukraine problem (see yesterday’s post), Robert Fico — Prime Minister of Slovakia — has been recuperating from an attempt on his life in May, when he was shot by a 71-year-old writer and political activist who obviously cared more for his country’s future than his own.

But now Mr. Fico is back on his feet, and seemingly anxious to join in his colleagues’ drive for immortality by cozying up to Putin, verbally trashing the “liberal ideas” of the vast majority of NATO members with regard to their support of Ukraine. While not (yet) specifically offering to actively negotiate peace terms between Russia and Ukraine, he said that “meaningless” liberal ideas were “spreading like cancer,” and that there were “not enough peace talks” with Putin to end the war in Ukraine. [Aleks Phillips, BBC News, July 6, 2024.]

*. *. *

Would someone please tell me what the hell is happening in these NATO member countries! Why are the people — having regained their hard-won independence just a short generation ago — now electing pro-Kremlin leaders? And especially now, when Russia’s saber-rattling is becoming more audible by the day? Have they completely forgotten the years of living under Soviet rule? The constant threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War? Or the exhilaration of that final, successful battle for freedom in the late 1980s and early ‘90s?

These three men are clearly not Groucho, Chico and Harpo — the Marx Brothers of comedy. More ominously, they bring to my mind Macbeth’s three witches. And the rumblings of discontent and anger already so prevalent throughout the world today are making it easier for the likes of Erdogan, Orban and Fico to spread Moscow’s propaganda, constantly stirring their poisonous witches’ brew toward the boiling point.

Russia, as we well know, wrote the book on propaganda; and today, with the help of the internet and social media, their reach is limitless.

The greater problem is that too many in the West are buying what they’re selling.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/24

The good news is, they’re not on my list of hostages — not yet, at any rate; but they have made it onto the Kremlin’s rapidly growing inventory of “Foreign Agents,” loosely defined as anyone who ever has been, may have been, may now be, may ever in the future be, or in someone’s wildest imagination could be thought to be associated with or influenced by a foreign entity . . . but in reality including anyone who dares to criticize the Putin government, its policies, or the Russian military.

That could very well be you or me, if we lived in Russia.

It’s no longer an exclusive list, and it’s definitely not one to which any sane person would aspire. But two independent journalists — Olesya Gerasimenko and Sergei Yezhov — have just been given the “honor.” Gerasimenko works for independent online news publication Verstka, while Yezhov is an investigative journalist with The Insider.

The two journalists share their new privileged positions with a lawyer, Grigory Vaypan; a St. Petersburg deputy and LGBT activist, Sergei Troshin; and a former St. Petersburg municipal deputy, Fyodor Utkin.

If any of these five honorees have ever considered leaving Mother Russia, this might be the time.

Just sayin’ . . .

*. *. *

In the meantime, the wait for information about Vladimir Kara-Murza continues. Tomorrow — Monday, when the IK-6 penal colony reopens for “business as usual” — there should be some further word as to his status and his physical condition. Hopefully, it won’t be bad news.

And, today being Sunday, we pay our weekly tribute once more to all those HOSTAGES locked away in Russian prisons for strictly political reasons:

Vladimir Kara-Murza
Evan Gershkovich
Alsu Kurmasheva
Paul Whelan
Ilya Yashin
Staff Sgt. Gordon Black
Robert Woodland Romanov
Boris Akunin
Marc Hilliard Fogel
Asya Kazantseva
Ilya Barabanov
Aleksandr Skobov
Antonina Favorskaya
Oleg Orlov
Boris Kagarlitsky
Oleg Navalny
Ksenia Karelina
Ksenia Fadeyeva
Lilia Chanysheva
Vadim Ostanin
Sergei Udaltsov
Konstantin Gabov
Danuta Perednya
Olesya Krivtsova

. . . and the hundreds of others whose names remain unknown to me. You have not been, and will not be, forgotten.

Brendochka
7/7/24

And there they are: a pair of 21st Century snake oil peddlers, offering their particular brands of medicine to anyone with an ill to be cured — say, a war in Gaza, or better yet, Ukraine.

First one off the starting line was Turkish President Erdogan, who has been playing the field between East and West for as long as anyone can remember. He is a dyed-in-the-wool Putinista; but his pragmatic side won’t let him risk losing his protected NATO status in the event of . . . well, if the worst should ever happen. And sitting on that fence must have been really starting to chafe.

So earlier this week, while attending the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, he managed a bit of one-on-one time with Vladimir Putin, and offered Turkiye’s help in ending that interminable “special military operation” in Ukraine.

But Putin doesn’t appear to have been in the market for snake oil this week.

In fact, without going into details as to the reason, my man Dmitry Peskov (the Kremlin’s adorable spokesman) summed it up in just five words: “No, it is not possible.” (Actually, in Russian it’s just three words.)

Thank you, Dima . . . you always manage to clarify things for us, and so succinctly.

*. *. *

And then it was back to Moscow for Putin, where he managed to find time to receive Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday, for a meeting that has been heavily criticized by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky . . . not to mention leaders of the European Union (EU), where Hungary has just assumed the rotating presidency of its Council.

In fact, EU leaders have taken great pains to stress that Orban is not — repeat, NOT — authorized to act on behalf of their organization in attempting to negotiate peace terms between Russia and Ukraine. As the EU’s only government leader to have kept close ties with the Kremlin since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Viktor Orban appears more than willing to share that fence with his friend Erdogan.

They also, thus far, are sharing in the failure to impress Vladimir Putin with their offers of help in Ukraine. Following the Putin-Orban meeting, which lasted some five hours, all Orban had to offer was that Russia and Ukraine were still “far apart” in any peace discussions: “Many steps are needed to end the war, but we took the first step to restore dialogue.” [Jaroslav Lukiv and Nick Thorpe, BBC News, July 5, 2024.]

Putin settled for calling it a “frank and useful” conversation — whatever that’s worth. I’m guessing, just about as much as that handshake.

*. *. *

And as a footnote, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFW/RL) reported yesterday that the Hungarian Foreign Minister had suddenly and inexplicably cancelled a meeting with his German counterpart scheduled for Monday, July 8th in Budapest, for “technical reasons,” adding that, “Due to an unforeseen change in the minister’s calendar, the Foreign Ministry has requested that the visit take place at a later date, hopefully in the near future. The reason is purely technical and not political.”

The German Foreign ministry said that “it was ‘astonished’ by the cancellation, and a ‘serious and honest’ discussion was needed after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day.” [RFE/RL, July 6, 2024.]

It would appear that I’m not the only one who treats “coincidences” with a healthy dose of skepticism.

*. *. *

And what do I have to say about all of this? Actually, Shakespeare said it far better than I (or nearly anyone else) could:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” – Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

So go home, Messrs. Erdogan and Orban — your hour upon Mr. Putin’s stage has, at the final curtain, signified absolutely nothing.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/7/24

“Say it isn’t so!” were the only words that came to my mind as I checked the news one final time before heading for bed around 2:00 this morning.

In a horrible deja vu moment, last night’s news item — not even a major headline, though it should have been — felt like the worst kind of gut-punch. It was the tragic saga of Alexei Navalny being played out all over again . . . only this time, it’s Vladimir Kara-Murza’s life being played with.

A well-known, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, politician, and vocal opponent of everything Vladimir Putin stands for, he was convicted in April 2023 of treason for spreading “false” information about the Russian army, and for being linked to an “undesirable organization.” His sentence: 25 years in prison. His real crime: giving an interview to CNN in 2022 in which he had the courage to criticize the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine and its persecution of political opponents:

“These people have a literally decades-long track record of going after their political opponents. Poison has been a particularly favored method because it gives them — or at least it did until all of these media investigations came out — plausible deniability. This regime that is in power in our country today, it’s not just corrupt, it’s not just kleptocratic, it’s not just authoritarian — it is a regime of murderers. And it is important to say it out loud.” [Radina Gigova and Christian Edwards, CNN, July 5, 2024.]

He was arrested shortly thereafter.

Following his 2023 conviction and sentencing, he was sent to the maximum-security penal colony known as IK-6 in Omsk, Siberia, where he has been kept in solitary confinement and denied treatment for serious medical conditions as his health steadily declines — medical conditions, including polyneuropathy, that he attributes to the 2015 and 2017 suspected poisonings by the Russian nerve agent Novichok.

And now his wife, Evgenia, reports that he has suddenly been moved to a prison hospital in another area of Omsk. His lawyers had traveled to the prison from Moscow to meet with him on Thursday, and were made to wait for five hours before finally being told that he had been moved to the hospital. When they went to the hospital on Friday morning, they were advised that he was “still being examined by doctors and had not yet been fully processed.” They were not allowed to see him on Friday, and were told that the facility would be closed over the weekend. [CNN, id.]

It is now the weekend, and Kara-Murza’s family, friends, lawyers — along with the rest of the world — sit in a holding pattern that is all too reminiscent of the months of waiting and wondering and fearing for the fate of Alexei Navalny . . . who died in prison under suspicious circumstances while the world waited.

*. *. *

What about a swap? Although such negotiations are kept in strictest confidence, it is likely that behind-the-scenes talks are taking place with regard to Vladimir Kara-Murza. Can he be traded for one or more Russians being held in another country? Possibly; but it won’t be simple — none of these cases are. Kara-Murza is a citizen of both Russia and the United Kingdom, but the U.K. has an absolute “no-prisoner-exchange” policy. He also holds U.S. Permanent Residence status, which makes him eligible for such an exchange by the U.S. Government; but there has not yet been any word of negotiations having been undertaken. If they have, it is being kept quiet.

So, again, we wait, while Vladimir Putin moves his hostages around his virtual chess board, or tosses a coin to determine who’s next.

*. *. *

“Asked by CNN why he had chosen to return to Russia after recovering from his poisoning — and knowing the risks faced by Kremlin critics — he [Kara-Murza] said: ‘I’m a Russian politician. I have to be in Russia. It’s my home country. I think the biggest gift we could give — those of us who are in opposition to Putin’s regime — to the Kremlin, is to give up and run. I mean, that’s all they want from us.’” [CNN, id.]

How long is the world going to keep running?!!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/6/24

People are forever talking about their “best” this, or their “favorite” that. Or they’re asking you about yours. And a lot of those are easy enough to answer (though often there’s a tie and you just can’t decide). For example, my favorite . . .

Broadway show: “Les Miz” — no contest.
Movie: “The Russia House” — know most of the dialogue by heart.
Meal: Either the stuffed baked lobster at Mattakeese Wharf in Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts; or the Dover sole at a little restaurant downhill from the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.

Book: “The Charm School,” by Nelson DeMille.
Color: Blue. Or green. So, I guess . . . teal.
Vacation: Baltic Cruise on Holland America Lines, 2009.
Concert: Paul Simon in Prague, 1991.
Summer: Prague, May-August, 1991.
Dessert: Tiramisu. And coffee ice cream (not together).

Compliment: “Wow!” (It was the strapless gown; I was 18.)
Popular song: “The Sound of Silence,” by Simon & Garfunkel.
More recent popular song: “Hallelujah,” by Leonard Cohen.
More recent than that: None. Not a single, solitary one.
Classical composer: Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven . . . so many.
Popular composer: Paul McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel. It’s a tie.

*. *. *

You get the idea. But these are pretty straightforward, to the point of being downright boring. The memories I prefer are the more, shall we say, unusual ones. Some are funny, some not so much . . . and some were red-faced-get-me-the-hell-out-of-here embarrassing. But they were memorable. Such as . . .

Best trip to Emergency Room. Briefly: Around 20 years old, cramps, pitcher of whisky sours, sundeck on a hot day, cool shower, passed out, hit wood floor face-first, split chin open, no car, called EMTs, went to ER, sewn up, had to return home in taxi . . . in cotton robe, nothing underneath, bare feet, big white dressing across chin, through crowded lobby of apartment building. My only comment: “You should see the other guy.” Talk of the building for weeks.

Best fender-bender. There’s really no such thing as a “good” accident, but this one was worse for the other guy than for me. In the usual bumper-to-bumper evening rush-hour traffic around the Jefferson Memorial in D.C., everyone had stopped except the driver behind me, whose front bumper French-kissed my rear bumper, audibly shattering something made of glass (turned out to be his headlight). We were exchanging insurance information when another car pulled over, a man and a woman exited the car and began walking toward us. The other driver — typically for people in larger cities — looked concerned, but I told him not to worry, as I knew the couple. In fact, they were a partner and a paralegal at the law firm in which I worked and were just making sure I was all right.

You could see the poor guy (the offending driver) deflate on the spot; he heard “lawyer,” and figured his life had just gone down the drain. I’m sure he had a couple of sleepless nights until I informed my insurance adjuster, who informed his insurance adjuster, who then informed him that I wasn’t injured . . . and in fact, my Datsun’s rock-solid bumper was barely even scratched. No damage, no law suit. He got lucky; but judging from the expression on his face when a lawyer showed up at the scene, he had already had his punishment.

Best breach of protocol. I can’t go into detail, but my firm at one time (in the ‘80s) had been retained to represent the widow of the last Shah of Iran in some commercial business matters. I never did meet her, and our representation of her was kept strictly confidential, but I was super impressed to be even indirectly connected to a royal family. Answering the phone one morning — just one of the dozens of calls I fielded during a typical day — I was stunned to hear a lovely, friendly female voice say, “Hello. This is Farah Pahlavi.”

Now, I was accustomed to dealing with people at high levels of industry and government, but was taken aback by the fact that an Empress would, first of all, place her own calls, and second, be so down-to-earth. At that moment, all of my years of training went out the window, and I heard myself replying, “Oh, hi. How are you?”

What the hell was wrong with me??!!! Did I think I was talking to my best friend? But before I could grab the scissors and kill myself, she stepped right in and said, “I’m fine, thank you. You must be Brenda. I’ve heard so much about you.” Wow! That lady is the very definition of graciousness, and though I never did have the privilege of meeting her face-to-face, I have never forgotten her. And when I think of that conversation, I still do this:

Best funeral. My mother’s, actually. Okay, I know that’s beyond weird. But there were a few little incidents that broke through the misery: my daughter packing seven pairs of socks and no toothbrush (it was out of state); the rainy day that turned bright and sunny, as if on cue, just as we reached the cemetery; the man my sister and daughter didn’t know who gave me the biggest bear hug ever and had them wondering about my secret life; and swapping growing-up stories late at night with our aunt, my mother’s younger sister.

But the best moment occurred on the day before the actual funeral, when the Rabbi came to my aunt’s home to pay his respects. When he walked into the living room, where my sister and I were seated next to each other, we took one look at him, turned to each other, and in unison blurted out, “Mottel.” That Rabbi was the absolute image of Mottel the Tailor, from “Fiddler On the Roof.” And we both burst out laughing, leaving the poor man thinking he’d walked into an insane asylum. This was, after all, supposed to be a household in mourning. But sometimes you just need a good belly laugh.

Best time almost getting shot in Russian museum. Well, the only time, really. Back in the day (1993) before smart phones and digital cameras, while living and working for a few months in Moscow, a good friend from Washington was staying with me for a couple of days on her way to meet up with her husband, who was in one of the former Soviet republics on business. With her was her teenage son, whose only request while there was to visit the Military Museum. As it happened, my next-door neighbors were a military family, and the husband offered to take us there. So the five of us piled into their little car; stopped for lunch at McDonald’s on the way (a real treat for the Russian couple); and headed for the museum, where the admission was free but I was required to pay one ruble for the privilege of taking pictures with my own camera.

Well, as I said, it was a film camera, and after snapping away for a while, the camera told me it was out of film by beeping at me — quite loudly, and repeatedly. Beep! Beep! Beep! And I’ve got to tell you, two of those armed guards — the ones who are absolutely everywhere in Moscow — came running into the room, hands on holsters, ready for action. But I was way ahead of them. Holding the camera up in the air where they could see it, I shouted, “Nyet! Nyet! Fotoaparat! Fotoaparat!” (“No! No! Camera! Camera!”) Mercifully, their hands still on their holsters, they heard me, saw the camera up in the air, and came walking slowly and cautiously toward me, where they examined the offending camera as I turned off the beeper, and everyone finally relaxed. In fact, we all had a rather hearty laugh in the end. Fun times in an authoritarian society.

Best time passed out in 5-star restaurant. Nope, I’m not going through this whole story again. But it was hilarious enough to warrant its own blog post (6/13/24: “The Trauma of Turning Thirty” — check it out.)

*. *. *

My point, after all of this, is that it’s not the routine and mundane that we value or remember throughout the decades. And it’s not necessarily just the good things. For me, at least, it’s the unusual, the bizarre, the quirky, even the embarrassing. Maybe I have a strange sense of humor, but it works for me. When I need to lighten up on a not-so-great day, I just call out to the universe, “Fotoaparat! Fotoaparat!” . . . and I recall once again that much of this life has, after all, been great fun.

You might want to give it a try. “Fotoaparat! Fotoaparat!”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/6/24

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

I just want to take a moment to wish every proud American a happy, safe, and peaceful Fourth of July, 2024 . . . and raise a glass to the next 248 years of freedom, unity, peace, and prosperity.

Now let’s all get busy celebrating and being thankful. I’ll see you here tomorrow, God willing.

Brendochka
7/4/24