Thursday, January 14, 2016

Putin May Use ‘Limited Nuclear War’ to Impose Martial Law and Cancel Elections, Rabinovich Says



Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 14 – As Russia’s economic situation deteriorates and threats to Vladimir Putin’s power increase, the Kremlin leader is likely considering ways including even the possibility of launching a limited nuclear strike to justify the imposition of martial law and the cancellation of upcoming elections in Russia, according to Slava Rabinovich.

            The Russian financier and blogger, in a posting on the Ukrainian Apostrophe portal today, argues that these dangers reflect the Kremlin leader’s misreading of the situation regarding “color” revolutions and of the ability of anyone to keep a nuclear war limited (apostrophe.com.ua/article/world/2016-01-14/putin-boitsya-revolyutsii-i-ne-isklyuchaet-yadernoy-voynyi/2933).

             But Rabinovich suggests that Putin’s “track record” in recent years indicates that he is quite prepared to engage in the most outrageous, dangerous and, until he did them, unthinkable actions and that the rest of the world must recognize the profoundly dangerous nature of his regime.

            Putin and Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council “really fear so-called ‘color’ revolutions,” and think that the West is planning to carry one out in Russia itself, forgetting that Putin and “his organized criminal group” have destroyed all the bases for such a revolution, Rabinovich says.

            “A revolution in Russia really will take place sooner or later,” he continues. “This will happen when the economic problems of the population grow first into economic demands and then into political ones. There won’t be any ‘external forces’ acting in the way in which Putin and Patrushev imagine.

            But the two of them are convinced otherwise and fear such a “color” revolution in Russia because if one did occur, they would be out of power and not only “in flight but in the dock at the Hague,” and that is something they can imagine very well indeed.”

            “In fact,” Rabinovich says, “Putin and Patrushev are psychopaths, who are living in the 1970s.  Despite what people think, “they think in the categories of KGB officers” of that time and, “besides that, the two of them are psychopaths” whose actions are less affected by their environment than by their own internal demons.

            In the year ahead, the Russian commentator says there is “a 50 percent chance that the elections in Russia will be put off as a result of the introduction of martial law” because in the minds of Putin and Patrushev even if the regime maintains tight control over the process, there is a risk that there could be a popular explosion, one far more dangerous than that of 2011.

            But to introduce martial law, the two Kremlin operatives need a pretext.  “They looked for it in Syria and now they are searching for it in Turkey and they may look somewhere else as well.” And the danger is that “they are really made and have begun not to exclude the possibility of even a limited nuclear war through the use of a tactical nuclear weapon.”

            The goal would be to “frighten the entire world,” he says.  “Does this appear to be a bad idea or an improbable one?”  How about the annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas, the shooting down of the Malaysian jetliner, the war in Syria, and bombing of Syrian Turkomans despite Ankara’s warning, and the violation of Turkish airspace? Were these all good ideas?

            “These psychopaths already have an ideal track record as far as ‘good ideas’ are concerned,” Rabinovich says. “The world has simply underrated all the bestial danger of the situation. The world is dealing with a dictatorial terrorist mafia regime which has nuclear weapons.”

            Seventeen years ago, Yeltsin and his “’family’ voluntarily transferred these nuclear weapons to these bandits, and now Putin and the criminals around him may very well be prepared to “use nuclear weapons with one goal” to hold on to power regardless of what they have to do.  Given what they’ve already done, “do you still have doubts?” Rabinovich asks.

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