Putin in the crosshairs
Putin in the crosshairs
So last week, Vlad Putin ticks off Donald Trump by mucking around with his peace negotiations, leading to a very angry President. Then somebody blows up one of his limos in Moscow.
Keep in mind, lots of people have tried to kill Putin over the years. The interesting thing is, these were various internal rivals and a few Ukrainian attempts. But up until now, I don’t think the U.S. has been involved. That could change.
Putin may still not realize this, but Pres. Trump is plenty ruthless when it comes to national defense. Far more than the Europeans, and the equal of any Israeli, including Bibi Netanyahu. He didn’t lose any sleep over killing Iran’s Number 2, Qassem Soleimani, and it sounds like the Ayatollah is the next target.
There is already a fairly effective Ukraine commando force operating in Moscow. They are the ones who killed Igor Kirillov in December. If they got intel help from the CIA, no doubt, they could eventually find Putin and eliminate him.
If Trump loses patience with the Russian dictator, he also has other powerful options, apart from killing the guy. The most obvious is simply impounding the Russian ghost fleet of oil tankers.
These are the 600 or so mystery ships that evade oil sanctions and provide the hard cash to keep Russia’s economy going. If Biden and the Europeans had been serious, Western navies would have simply seized these ships, and Putin’s cash reserve would be gone in year. Along with the artillery shells and conscript soldiers from North Korea.
There’s no Russian navy left to protect these ships and when hauled into any port, they become subject to forfeiture. In fact, that happened last week when one of them broke down and had to be seized by the Germans as a navigation hazard. NATO should just scoop up the rest, if Putin won’t agree to a ceasefire.
In fact, for all the squawking from the Europeans about the war, they are still buying gas from Russia and they have not touched the billions in frozen Russian assets they hold. In the end, it's going to have to be Pres. Trump forcing a peace on the Russians.
Let’s hope when Putin speaks to our President on the phone this week, he is suitably chastened and ready to wind down the war. As Pres. Trump famously explained to Mr. Zelensky, “you don’t have the cards, but America does.”
If they haven’t all quit yet, what remains of Putin’s motorcade chauffeurs may be telling him the same thing.
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