“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Vladimir Putin May have Signed His Own Death Certificate
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine seems to be part of a plan to recreate the Soviet Union in all its “greatness” as Putin sees it.
Truth is the Soviet Union was never great. For 69 years (from 1922 to 1991), the country struggled to survive. Soviet leaders lived in the lap of luxury while ordinary Russian citizens barely scraped by. The country’s leaders held things together with brutal force. That’s the way things work in communist countries.
When Soviet citizens got out of line, they paid a high price. Many of them lost their lives. According to Soviet sources, during the Stalin era (April 3, 1922 to October 16, 1952), about 20 million Soviet citizens “died in labor camps, forced collectivization, famine, and executions.”
Putin was born in 1952, the year Stalin died. In 1975, he joined the KGB and made his way up through the ranks. Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. In 1998, he made Putin his Director of the Federal Security Service. In 1999, Yeltsin made Putin his Secretary of the Security Council. Putin brought the skills he learned in the KGB to both of those positions.
In 1999, Putin said that communism was “a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization.” Getting rich quickly in government was more his cup of tea.
On August 9, 1999, Yeltsin appointed Putin as one of his three First Deputy Prime Ministers and acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation. The day he made those appointments, Yeltsin also said that he wanted Putin to be the next President of Russia. Putin dutifully obliged him by announcing that he would run for office.
On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned, and Putin became acting president. A few weeks later, he was elected president. Since then, Putin has been the only mainstay in Russian politics, and he has amassed a fortune.
In 2017, Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he believes Putin is worth $200 billion. He should know, because at that time, his company was the largest portfolio investor in Russia.
Putin’s net worth today is anybody’s guess. It’s fair to say that he is probably the richest man in the world even though he has never held a job outside government.
It’s funny how that works.
Putin probably believes that the richest man in the world should rule the greatest country in the world. That’s how megalomaniacs think.
Currently, Russia controls 11% of Earth’s land area, but it has only 148 million people, or just under 2% of Earth’s population. Russia is a resource-rich country where the top 1% of the population controls 71% of the country’s wealth.
To Putin, annexing Ukraine and the other Soviet era satellite countries probably sounds like the right move politically. In 2014, he took the Crimean Peninsula away from Ukraine, and world leaders including Barack Obama (a.k.a, Barry Soetoro) didn’t put up a fuss.
Now, Putin wants to finish the job. Who’s next on his list is anybody’s guess. It might be Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, or the Czech Republic, but occupying Ukraine is Job One.
This time, though, Putin is meeting stiff resistance from Ukraine and from European Union leaders and the United States. They are serious. By disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system, the entire Russian economy will suffer. So will Russia’s entire population. See “U.S. and E.U. Agree to Cut Russian Banks Out of Vital SWIFT Financial System as Part of Latest Sanctions”.
Also, see “What is SWIFT? How could banning Russia from the banking system impact the country?”.
That spells serious trouble for Putin at home. Already, protests are popping up all over Russia, and the SWIFT ban hasn’t kicked in yet. See “Hundreds are arrested as shocked Russians protest Ukraine attack”.
When the SWIFT ban kicks in, it will be Katie bar the door for Putin. His vast wealth won’t be enough to protect him from the Russian people. He may have to flee the country to stay alive. Keep in mind that the Bolsheviks murdered Czar Nickolas’ entire family. It’s a Russian tradition.
Putin’s administration of Russia has earned him a reputation for fraud and corruption. His invasion of Ukraine may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The Russian people were already unhappy with Putin. Now, they are angry. When the SWIFT ban takes effect, they will have better reasons to be discontented.
To survive the onslaught, Putin will have to be wilier than Rasputin. I don’t think he’s that slick. In fact, I think he may have signed his own death certificate.
For What It’s Worth
Putin buddied up to Syrian President Bashar al-Asaad and the ayatollahs in Tehran for one reason. He wanted to send the message to the world that Russia, meaning Putin, matters.
While Russian military forces have been in Syria, Israel and the United States have been hitting Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets with impunity. Putin could do nothing about it except huff and puff. Now, he’s hitting back in Ukraine and warning outsiders, meaning the United States, to stay away.
It was a foolish gamble, a gamble that Putin will lose.
In geopolitical games, people die. It goes with the territory. Lots of innocent Ukrainians have died already. So have lots of Russian soldiers. Their blood is on Putin’s hands, and his enemies will demand retribution.
At this point, Putin doesn’t have as many enemies as Hitler, but he’s making headway. Hitler committed suicide to avoid the consequence of his tyranny. What will Putin do?
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
