The Kremlin patient: condition worsening, both politically and mentally

Vladimir Putin's annual "Direct Line" event, combined with a big press conference, this time seems to have set a record for the degree of inadequacy -- or even madness -- of its main character. At other times, it would be easy to just make fun of the guy over some of his embarrassments. It is not for nothing that the annual event had once gained a colloquial title, "Putin's stand-up".

But now, amid a brutal war, we see it from a different perspective because sometimes the sinister outlines of the Kremlin's plans emerge through all the nonsense the Kremlin boss is uttering. Also, the mental condition of the Moscow dictator, his personality type, becomes more understandable. It’s important to note that in the case of a personalist dictatorship, final decisions are made by a single person.

OBSCENE PUNS TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION OF RUSSIA’S ECONOMY

Actually, an example of such inadequacy on Putin’s part came at the very start of the conference as Putin responded to the question of how Russian economy should live, survive, and develop. Here is what was said:

“When everything’s calm, routine, and stable, we get bored. It’s stagnation. We want things to go down. As soon as things to start to go down, when suff flits by your temples, like seconds and bullets – unfortunately, bullets are flitting now, too – we get scared… ‘Terrible, terrible’. It is terrible. But it’s not ‘terrible, terrible, terrible’. Everything is measured by the economy.”

And then Putin went on to explain how things aren’t as bad in terms of economy…

For most who didn’t get it, I’ll explain: “terrible, terrible, terrible” is a reference to an classic Russian joke about a brothel, whose female supervisor had an extensive professional experience and – I beg my pardon – male genitalia, too. That is, Putin immediately set the lowest possible bar for communicating with his people. And he further maintained this level by telling another joke implying a “three-letter word” (standing for, perhaps, the most widely used Russian profanity) . It seems that the dictator is being somehow metaphysically drawn to his older world-acclaimed nickname, conceived by the Kharkiv football fans back in 2014).

But this isn’t even the worst thing. He used the “things go down” (in Russian, “движуха”, “dvizhukha”) phrase, a rather informal one given his status and mostly used by the youths about a decade ago, precisely to claim that the aging ruler has still got that vigor in him. Also, this showed the dictator’s actual attitude to the big war he unleashed against Ukraine and the generally dangerous situation in Europe and the rest of the world, the one that can lead to even bigger wars. To someone, war means blood, death, and grief, – but to Putin, it’s just “dvizhukha”.

NEW ANGLES OF PUTIN’S MADNESS: DARING THE WEST TO GO ON A "TECHNOLOGICAL DUEL" OVER KYIV

Truth be told, his eyes actually radiate that lunatic fire as he talks about war or weapons of mass destruction. Recently, Putin’s favorite topic has been the “new” Oreshnik missile. We have almost got used to his escapades, but what Putin said about the "technological duel" between Russia and the West, mostly the USA, on the territory of the Ukrainian capital, is beyond savage:

"Let them (experts who cast doubt on Oreshnik’s capabilities, - ed.) offer that we, and offer that those in the West and in the USA who pay them for their analysis, hold <…> such a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them designate some target, say, in Kyiv, mass up all the air defense and missile defense capabilities there, and then will hit this target with the Oreshnik. And we’ll see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. But are they? <…> I think it would be useful for both us and the American side.”

Offering the West to designate and point Putin to a target in Kyiv… Is this some kind of trolling? Is this a joke? If so, nothing funny here. Is this a threat? Maybe, but it is far from the first one to be voiced… Most of all, this speaks of the dictator's mental perversions, to which the world has turned a blind eye for so long.

After several years of engagement in the war in Syria on Assad’s side, Putin would use such direct lines to reassure people that there’s nothing to worry about and that this costs Russia almost nothing. See, those bombs and missiles would have soon been written off anyway, so what’s the difference between taking them out for scrap or using them in Syria? Besides, Russia has an excellent ground there for testing arms and coordinating units. Now the mad dictator, who lost in Syria and basically spat on this country, is fully focusing on Ukraine, which he craves much more. So, suggesting that the West is full of perverts like himself, he is trying to offer the West to “team up”: you select a target, and let’s play some new games over Kyiv. This is Putin’s “augmented reality”.

RUSSIA’S NEW NUCLEAR DOCTRINE THAT EXPLAINS TRUMP’S RECENT COMMENTS

However, Putin’s statements are not always so obviously arrogant or cynical. He and his talking heads weave certain messages into more complex verbal constructs – only for experts to decipher. Here, for example, are some explanations regarding the updated nuclear doctrine:

“We are talking about increasing responsibility: non-nuclear states that may participate in aggression against Russia along with nuclear powers… If such countries, like their allies, pose a threat to our sovereignty, to Russia’s very existence, then we believe we are entitled to use our nuclear weapons against them, too.”

First of all, let’s put aside this hypocritical rhetoric of “aggression against Russia” (After all, Hitler also claimed he had never invaded anyone but only defended himself). Let’s move on to that tricky wording. This is a justification of a potential nuclear strike on Ukraine, a non-nuclear state that “together with its allies poses a threat to Russia.” It is important to clarify that the allies are nuclear powers, that is, the USA and the United Kingdom. Accordingly, the “threat to Russia’s sovereignty” is Ukrainian strikes inside Russia involving weapons that Washington and London allow Ukraine to launch.

Photo: Getty Images

Now let’s recall Trump’s recent statement about the “very stupid” decision of the Biden administration to allow the use of U.S.-provided weapons to strike deep into Russia: “I don't think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia. (…) I thought it was a very stupid thing to do,” Trump said, adding that it led to negative consequences.

Many wondered what exactly was “stupid” about that decision, and what were the negative consequence. Most likely, this is what happened: during informal contacts, the Russian side showed the incoming Trump administration an updated nuclear doctrine and theses with a cited justification for the possibility of a nuclear strike on Ukraine. So this is already becoming a new element of Russian blackmail.

This is just one of the examples, this time public, of trying to “drag” Donald Trump and his administration onto Russia’s side.

OLD FAIRY TALES OF “ILLEGITIMATE” UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT

From the same basket came Putin’s verbose, sneaky accusations of the Ukrainian authorities over their allegedly being unfit to negotiate, being unwilling to sit down at the table and make peace. That’s despite the fact that Putin himself says almost overtly that he will not allow any truce, he only needs a “sustainable peace” (which in his understanding implies Ukraine’s capitulation).

And then the Kremlin draws up various plots on how to achieve this. We once spoke with experts who research Russian propaganda messages within a particular, and rather long-lasting, Russian media campaign. That is the claim about the “illegitimacy” of President Zelensky after May 2024. Despite massive resources invested in that effort, it never yielded successful results and almost died out.

But now the topic is back, and it’s personally Vladimir Putin who brought it up. He reminds everyone that Moscow cannot negotiate with the incumbent head of Ukrainian state over his alleged "illegitimacy." But whom is he willing to sit down, and how? Here’s the quote:

“You know, if someone runs in the elections, achieves legitimacy, we will talk to anyone. Including Zelensky. But now, if Ukraine really wants to follow the path of a peaceful settlement, they are, of course, able to do this. They may organize this process in Ukraine as they want. We can simply sign things only with those who are legitimate. And only the Rada and Chairman of the Rada are legitimate (the latter is completely under the regime’s leadership). This is a purely formal legal issue. They may organize domestically as they want. But we can sign anything – if we get to the point of signing – ​​only with representatives of legitimate authorities. That’s all.”

A NEGOTIATING POSITION THAT WOULD LEAD UKRAINE TO BECOMING ANOTHER GEORGIA

I apologize for the long and rather confusing quote, all whirling around a keyword “(il)legitimacy.” Despite the similarity of the theses voiced, this is really different from the previous campaign to discredit President Zelensky, the one that was active in the first half of 2024. Then it aimed only to destabilize Ukraine domestically.

And what we see now is something totally different – this is the Kremlin's negotiating position in communication with the Trump team. Hence twice as many words about "(il)legitimacy", as well as the key message of this being "a purely formal legal issue", thrown in to make it easier to explain to law-abiding Americans the logic of such a stance. Deep down, this is about a creeping process of “Georgianization” of Ukraine and it leadership (Zelensky was named among possible new, legitimate leaders just to throw people off, but the main thing is that the elections must be held).

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

Actually, two options are outlined here. The first (which was mentioned second) is for Volodymyr Zelensky and Ruslan Stefanchuk (Rada Chair) to resign in favor of those who volunteer to sign off Putin's whims. The second option (mentioned first) is to hold new elections, set to bring to power those who would be “fit” for negotiations. Russia will be convincing the Trump team (it could be assumed that Russia is already convincing them) that this is the easiest and fastest way to peace. In this scheme, it will be up to the Trump administration to put pressure on Kyiv with the demand to agree to either resignation or elections under the threat of a sharp cut in military and financial aid. It is indicative how the “legitimist” Putin emphasizes several times that “Ukraine may organize things as they want”. That is, Russia will swallow any formalization format that Ukraine might choose. But in the end, everything should boil down to signing certain papers.

What should be the Ukrainian response to this “peaceseeking” efforts by Moscow? A thorough analysis of Russia’s plans, all their options, dissecting them into simple visual schemes of political fraud, and patiently, systematically explaining this to partners. It must be consistently proven that these options could lead to an even greater defeat, which will be common.

PUTIN’S SEXISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Plenty was said at Putin’s conference of Russia’s demographic problems and the need to increase the birth rate. Putin went for a long narration about the genius innovation regarding “maternal capital” and the explanation of “demographic pits”, which emerged since World War 2. And after these snobbish explanations, he came to a simple conclusion: “We need girls. Girls”.

Russia “needs” them because they are supposed to give birth a lot. They should give birth so that over time there would be someone to send to a war, conquer and settle the conquered lands. (It should be recalled that the Third Reich also had an actual “mother cult” and persecution of LGBT people) “We need girls” might sound not as harsh and brutal as the old Russian marshal’s saying “chicks will deliver more babies anyway” but, in essense, it’s the same thing, or rather, as they say in the world of cinema, a prequel.

While we noted Putin’s sexism, we must also mention his anti-Semitic vibe. He claims the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Yes, the “Russian Orthodox Church.” To mention the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” would be an unforgivable concession for Putin… But who is persecuting the church, in Putin’s words? “These are people without any faith, they’re atheists. They’re ethnic Jews, but who has seen them in a synagogue? In my opinion, no one’s seen them in a synagogue.” So, in his vision, are Jews persecutors of Orthodoxy?... This is so similar to Russia’s traditional “Black Hundreds” rhetoric that this becomes unsettling.

However, Putin’s anti-Semitism is a complicated case. He is not a full-blown but rather a hybrid anti-Semite. For example, he speaks warmly about his newly appointed governors – Goldstein and Khinshtein. These are "his" Jews, meaning, the good ones. But those other ones are foes to Russia, so all beware…

During Putin's speech at the Direct Line event, a large electronic map of Russia was showcased behind his back in the studio. It’s an illegitimate map, too, as it included temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. It was also interactive – from Moscow, some white rays were radiating in all directions. And when you see in front of this interactive map a small lying man who has seized such great power, this is truly an eerie image. It’s also accurate – the evil concentrated in his words is spreading through Russia and farther around the world, wave by wave. And the longer it is not stopped, the more dangerous and inadequate it becomes. This was Putin’s 21st “Direct Line”, by the way. But this was no blackjack for the St Petersburg street thug. This one was a bust.

Oleg Kudrin, Riga

Title photo is a screenshot from a video