All the president’s men
EVEN FOR A LEADER AS CLOISTERED AS VLADIMIR PUTIN, the bad news from Ukraine should be impossible to ignore.
The Russian army’s rapid retreat from Kyiv last week has made clear the scale of its failure, leaving behind the bodies of Russian soldiers and the burnt-out shells of hundreds of tanks and other military vehicles. The goal of a knockout blow against Kyiv has been abandoned.
Even more horrifyingly, the retreat of Russian forces in the town of Bucha led to the discovery of the killing of hundreds of civilians. Last Sunday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia’s public image was now one of torture and execution, describing its soldiers “murderers”, “butchers” and “rapists”, and warned that “even worse things” might be found in other occupied regions.
Russia is facing the toughest sanctions ever enacted against a superpower. Was it misinformation from a cadre of yes-men that led the Russian leader down this path? That is what US and European intelligence argued last week, saying
