War

RUSSIA - More than a million Russians have been killed or seriously wounded on the battlefields of Ukraine. But there is one man who owes his life to the continuing slaughter.

For Vladimir Putin, an outbreak of peace means certain death – by assassination, overthrow and execution or in an international prison cell as a war criminal.

The Russian president’s only credible hope of survival in the gangster state he has himself created, is to prolong the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine or to win in such outrageously successful terms that he can turn his attention to other former client states and other victims.

Survival, after all, was Putin’s objective in launching the invasion in 2022.

In his interminable ramblings about history, the Russian president makes great pretence that all of Ukraine – not just the eastern regions of Donbas, Donetsk and Crimea – is part of Russia’s empire.

Putin claims that it is his mission to reunite former territories while denying Kyiv the chance to join the Nato alliance with the West.

From the point of view of Russian interests, these might seem to make sense as a rationale for the war.

But if rationales can change, Putin’s true, cynical motives cannot.

His strategy for clinging to power – and thus to life – comes directly from Niccolo Machiavelli, the calculating philosopher who wrote the handbook for dictators.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump. Putin's strategy for clinging to power – and thus to life – comes directly from Niccolo Machiavelli. (Pic: BBC)