Crisis in Russia: Putin alone at home

The Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin received the worst present for his 70th birthday just a few hours after his anniversary celebration: On Saturday morning, part of the bridge he personally inaugurated from the Russian mainland to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea blew up. And this just days after Moscow’s ruler solemnly announced in the Kremlin that another 15 percent of Ukraine’s territory would be “Russian forever”.

Putin is humiliated. Until now, he hasn’t really cared about this because television and the press are almost in the hands of the Kremlin, but for days he has had to experience something completely unusual: via the screen and even from his closest circle there are audible contradictions about the conduct of the war.

For the second time, Putin has changed the commander of his war of aggression. Now it’s up to General Sergei Surovikin, known as “General Armageddon” because of his unscrupulousness.