Ukraine’s Drone Attacks on Moscow Won’t have the Immediate Impact Many Expect, Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 18 – Many in the West and in Ukraine and Russia as well “think that bombing Moscow is completely different from bombing Voronezh and that Muscovites will react differently and demand that Putin “immediately end the war, Vladimir Pastukhov says; but that is “nothing more than another illusion.”

            “Muscovites,” the London-based Russian analyst says, “are not separated from the rest of Russia by any ‘Chinese wall;” and they won’t act either more rapidly or more effectively to this challenge  (t.me/v_pastukhov/1931 reposted at /echofm.online/opinions/u-putina-na-novoj-stadii-agonii-est-vremya-vybrat).

            Pastukhov continues: “Most likely the reaction of society” – both in Moscow and in Russia as a whole – “will be slow.” Russians do on occasion, perhaps once every 150 years, rise in merciless revolt, “but that doesn’t happen in an empty place and certainly not because Moscow is bombed.”

            According to the Russian analyst, “the Russian historical clock” has returned to “somewhere either of 1855 or 1916: the tsarist armored train is still moving forward bugt the rails are slowly being dismantled and used for firewood … But for now, we are only talking about a delayed and not an immediate effect.”

            Consequently, Pastukhov concludes, “Putin at this new stage in the agony of his regime still has time to choose whether to follow the path of Nicholas I and go for a humiliating exit from Crimean War 2.0 or to following the path of Nicholas II, go all our and bring the country to the brink of a palace coup.”