by Robert M. Traxler

President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating in the Russian Federation vacillates between 71% and 82%, depending on which survey we read. A popular belief among Americans is that President Putin is evil and a dictator who rules by fear and hate. Not true, an American politician would literally kill for an approval rating of 82%. President Bill Clinton famously made the statement he could do anything he wished if he had a 60% approval rating.

The Russian people love President Putin and are not going to toss him under one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s electric school buses anytime soon.

The sanctions we and the rest of NATO put on the Russian Federation are just not working, in part because the Chinese and Indians are bending over backwards to help the Russian economy. The Russian Federation is rewarding them with cheap oil, gas and coal; they return the favor by using the Russian ruble in trade and propping up its value. Please note how our government and its willing accomplices in the media have been mute on the sanctions for the last eight months. 

The government and our media will not condemn China and India for supporting the Russian Federation because their money is just too good to stand on principle and condemn them. The new Western corporate model is to support Socialist/Progressive politicians and environmental groups to purchase their favor, in a word to “prostitute” themselves. Conservative politicians are also guilty and were the guiltiest in past decades, but they receive fewer corporate payoffs today, this is a sea change in American politics. For all of my life it had been the opposite; indeed the old model still can be seen in fossilized media members incorrectly saying that the Republicans are the party of Wall Street, even as corporate payments favor the Progressives and Democrats by a large margin. 

Getting back on topic, President Putin will continue the war as long as the people support him. Stories of Russian men fleeing Mother Russia are wildly exaggerated; please keep in mind even in WWII American men fled to Canada by the thousands. Time magazine reports that most Russians are not inconvenienced by the war, and it has no impact on their daily life. Couple that with patriotism for Mother Russia, National Socialism and a media that is in bed with the government (not unlike our media is in bed with our government), and the war on The Ukraine will be waged for a very long time. Life in all cities continues with everyday life being normal. The equivalency of Starbucks, Stars Coffee, and McDonald’s Vkusno I tochka or Tasty Period are thriving. 

Sanctions are not working and have conveniently been forgotten by our media. The Chinese pay for oil, gas and coal in arms and munitions, the Indians pay the in currency, and the Russians use that currency to purchase weapons from many nations such as Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Belarus, and others. A long war will be to the Russians’ advantage as the people of the Ukraine will be fatigued by the rain of artillery and missiles destroying their electrical, transport, food distribution, medical and information systems. 

History tells us that it is a Russian tactic to hold ground while they mass armor, munitions, indeed all classes of supply and launch a massive attack, overwhelming the enemy defenses at the point of attack. The Russian plan calls for a pincer movement, a double envelopment operation to trap large numbers of enemy forces and destroy them with massed artillery fire, or cutting them off from resupply, forcing them to surrender. The loss of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers would be a death blow to the Ukraine and see the Russian Federation win this war.

Why we are dribbling out military aid to the Ukraine is puzzling indeed; it is a political decision, not a military one. The only way for Ukraine to win this war is to kill Russians in large numbers. To do that they need cluster munitions, aircraft, counter battery radars, attack drones, training and all ten classes of supply. NATO members Poland, Britain, Germany, and the United States are providing materiel support in dribs and drabs, dictated more by politics than military necessity.  

Please remember that 39 nations failed to condemn Russian aggression or approved of it. Syria and Libya have provided up to four Divisions, 40,000 troops (volunteers) to the Russians. China, India, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, and others are violating the sanctions and supporting the Russian Federation with economic support. The Russian people are not so much as inconvenienced by the war and dearly love President Putin; until that changes the war on The Ukraine will continue. My opinion.