Mark Karlin: For Putin, Civilians Are Not Collateral Damage; They Are the Target
There will be no “peace in our time” as long as Putin heads the Russian government. (Antonio Marín Segovia)
March 5, 2022
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
In general, the Western press does not appear to understand that the killing of civilians by the Russians in Ukraine is not collateral damage. Civilians are Putin’s intended target to both demolish cities and instill fear and demoralize the Ukrainian population. One need only look at Putin’s past tactics in shelling even hospitals in Syria, not to mention his reducing much of Chechnya to rubble (and the annexation of two provinces in Georgia). Indeed, Putin’s war on Chechnya was not that different than the Nazi strategy in World War II to laying siege to Russian cities with the intent of killing off and vanquishing Soviet citizens.
This was, ironically, true of the notorious German siege of Leningrad that lasted 872 days and left a pulverized city with an estimated civilian death toll of more than 800,000. It is ironic because Putin was raised in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, having been born there just a few years after the end of WW II. His tactics appear to be taken from Hitler’s playbook on decimating cities and the people in them. Leningrad was reduced to debris, with some of the surviving residents forced to engage in cannibalism because there was no land route to resupply the city while under withering attack.
Targeting civilians is key to Putin’s war strategy in Ukraine, given that the Ukrainian Army is putting up such stiff resistance. Putin does not value the lives of the people he claims are “brothers” to Russians. It is important to also remind ourselves that Putin has had, with impunity, prominent dissidents hunted down, poisoned, or even shot to death next to the Kremlin in one case. If that doesn’t work, then he imprisons persons who oppose his regime for indefinite periods, with draconian restrictions. In short, Putin is, in essence, a murderer and tyrant. His slaying of opponents is barely mentioned as context for his war on Ukraine and reports that he has teams hunting the Ukrainian leadership, particularly to kill Zelensky and the other leaders of the country. They would be replaced with a puppet government, another Belarus in Putin’s plan after the hit squads accomplish their task.
A former KGB agent, Putin yearns for the days of the Soviet empire.
It is a morbid reality that while Putin accuses Ukraine of being run by neo-Nazis when it has a Jewish president, a thriving Jewish community, and when many of Putin’s tactics mirror those of Nazi Germany.
Rarely mentioned is also the reality that Ukraine is an abundant grower of wheat and that Putin no doubt sees that fact as a means of increased exports, with the money returning to the kleptocracy. It is also possible that he plans, as Hitler did, to replace the killed Ukrainians with Russians, echoing a Hitler policy known as Lebensraum or “room to grow.” Hitler also saw Ukraine as a ”breadbasket” for Germany.
That is all the more reason Putin may prohibit the Ukrainian exiles (1.5 million people and growing) from returning back to their nation if he conquers Ukraine. The Russification of Ukraine would accelerate.
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