Vladimir Putin just caved
For months, Palmer Report has been pointing out that Russian President Vladimir Putin is at the weakest and most vulnerable point in his presidency. He’s lost his puppet Trump. President Biden has enacted crushing economic sanctions on Putin’s oligarch allies. And the Russian people are no longer afraid to take to the streets to protest against Putin.
All the so-called aggression from Putin of late has merely been an attempt at creating the appearance of strength, in order to distract from how weak he’s become. He amassed troops near Ukraine, but didn’t have the muscle to actually invade. He imprisoned Navalny, but didn’t have the muscle to poison him. It was a matter of time before Putin would have to pull back from all of this.
Sure enough, the BBC is reporting that Russia is now massively pulling back its troops near Ukraine. Putin must have hoped he could get world leaders to trade him something in exchange for pulling back. But now that no world leaders have fallen for his bluff, he’s left with no choice other than to simply cave.
This is proof of just how weak Putin is these days. Now we have to keep up the pressure on him with regard to Navalny as well. This is also a reminder that if you’re anti-Putin, you’re doing yourself no favors by running around yelling about how he’s invincible and he has us right where he wants us. The facts make clear that’s simply not the case. You finish Putin off by loudly calling out his weakness, not by acting like he has some evil magic wand.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report