What is happening in Russia?
A reader sent me the following message today:
Charles, it seems the leader of the Wagner Group demolished Putin's stated reasons for the invasion of Ukraine, calling it a crock. It kind of contradicts your position on the war, does it not? Indeed it does.
My reply:
The situation is being described in Russia Today and in Cuban news as an insurrection by a private militia. These media also maintain that the measures taken by Putin have the full support of the Russian parliament and people as well as Russia’s neighboring allies.
I do not think that such a situation, however it may be described, changes the facts leading up to the war. Such facts include NATO expansion to the east, U.S. support for a coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014 that culminated in an anti-Russian government in Ukraine, and attacks by the Ukrainian government against the Russian population in Ukraine. These are the reasons that justify the …