'So much crap piled up': Why Vladimir Putin may be in over his head

01 May 2023

Militarily, economically and politically, the Ukraine invasion has been a major drain for Russia — not unlike the Soviet Union's Afghanistan invasion during the 1980s. Nonetheless, President Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of backing down.

In a scathing article published by the Daily Beast on May 1, journalist A. Craig Copetas emphasizes that Putin is feeling increasingly desperate as the war drags on.

"He's ignited a dumpster fire kindled with more than 200,000 dead Russian soldiers, whose death march on Ukraine doubled the size of his border with NATO, torched his profitable global energy markets, and recycled him as a Chinese subordinate," Copetas observes. "He's produced the country's largest budget hole since the 1990s and achieved the highest number of sanctions ever leveled against a country…. Vladimir Putin is keen on autocratic traditions and enthusiastic about keeping his Kremlin spick-and-span, but with so much crap piled up inside his fortress after the invasion of Ukraine, arresting critics and assassinating political foes, the one day of traditional spring-cleaning from the beginning of Putin's reign is no longer enough."

A Russian military intelligence interviewed by the Beast on condition of anonymity agrees that Putin is overwhelmed.

The analyst told the Beast, "The Kremlin seriously studies the long-term impact of what we might find ridiculous. Putin's decreasing reservoirs of rendered pig fat underscore the size, scope and cascade effect of his battlefield reality. He's lost more than 9000 pieces of military equipment, 50 percent of his tanks are gone, and he's facing severe shortages of munitions and components to keep warplanes in the air and submarines at sea."

The Daily Beast's full report continues at this link (subscription required).

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