Russian President Putin is Like a wounded Lion

President Putin did not foresee what would happen in Ukraine. He sent his military forces to Ukraine, believing his troops would defeat the Ukrainian army within days and not continue fighting for more than a month or year. He did not realize the Ukrainian president’s determination to fight for his country and democracy. Also, Putin forgot that Mr. Trump is no longer the president of the United States. The United States has a new visionary president, Joe Biden, capable of bringing all NATO allies and other western nations together to stop his invasion of a democratic country.

Putin’s most significant miscalculation was believing that the United States and its NATO allies would Budge by his nuclear war threat. The democratic nations are not taking his threat lightly but know Mr. Putin is not suicidal. He knows deploying a weapon of mass destruction could quickly turn his few allies, including China, against him. Also, such a development will likely trigger a massive unknown military response by the western power that could threaten his survival as president of Russia.

No one can read Putin’s mind, but we know he is like a wounded lion determined to do what it takes to survive. He is being corned and desperate. Unfortunately, his closest allies are not helping by not telling him to pull out his struggling forces from Ukraine. Putin’s latest offensive operation intended to gain ground before western weaponry arrives in Ukraine has failed. Instead, the Ukrainians are poised to retake their territories, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

President Putin, a former KGB agent, blamed the United States and its western allies for the disintegration of the supreme Soviet Union. Many scholars disagree because the nation’s failure was due to its inability to overcome the test of time in the 20th century. It was almost impossible to control the economic, social, and political determination of the Soviet people when the government could no longer 100% control information and rely on the socialist system to meet people’s needs. Notably, the people wanted better living conditions that socialism could not provide. The Soviet leadership rejected capitalism without realizing that socialism was not practical in the 20th century and beyond.

Also, after years of promoting Russia’s military forces and equipment as among the best on the planet, Putin was convinced that he had a superior military to make his dream of re-establishing the supreme Soviet Empire a reality. However, his so-called special operation in Ukraine, now almost a year, revealed his military’s weaknesses. Russia does not have well-trained, conventional capable forces and modern equipment to defeat the Ukrainian Armed forces or any equipped military forces.

President Putin has two choices as following:

• Pull the Russian military Forces out of Ukraine, including Crimea, and begin an honest negotiation with Ukraine and the Western alliance. His unprovoked, unnecessary war took too many civilian lives in Ukraine. It also destroyed the infrastructure that will require billions of dollars to replace. It was evident in the past ten months that the United States and its NATO allies avoided sending heavy fighting vehicles to Ukraine, hoping that Putin would recognize his error and leave Ukraine to prevent a bigger war in Europe.
• Putin may continue his so-called special operation and risk a humiliating defeat in Ukraine. The United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other NATO members are running out of patience with Putin’s special military operation that is targeting and murdering civilians in Ukraine. Those countries are now willing to send powerful war-fighting equipment to Ukraine to force Russia out of the country. Putin's forces may be forced out before 2024. Forcing Russians out of Ukraine could complicate Russians’ ability to negotiate for any sanction relief after the war.  

Many military experts, analysts, and senior officers in Russia know there is no realistic chance of keeping the annexed Ukrainian territories. Ukraine is more powerful than ever before. The nation has well-trained forces and equipment than Russia. Putin needs to accept the above first choice to end the war.  

The United States-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC, December 13-15, creates opportunities for several struggling African countries to articulate their business-friendly policies and climates to attract investors. For example, African leaders could collaborate with USA officials and the business community to promote investment opportunities in Africa rather than only looking for handouts from the Americans and taking pictures for political purposes as usual. However, it has yet to be determined how many participating African leaders are aware and prepared to utilize the available resources to improve their people's lives. Here are some of the things the summit intends to address:

• Partnerships that create jobs, fuel economic growth, and advance equitable prosperity. 
• Technology-driven innovation in Africa to improve private sectors and education. 
• African leaders share their economic priorities and perspectives with officials from the National Security Council, Department of State, USAID, U.S. Trade Representative, Treasury, Department of Commerce, and Millennium Challenge Corporation.

The summit demonstrates the United States' commitment to African countries. It underscores how the U.S. values its relationship with Africa as China and Russia, non-democratic states, attempt to influence African nations. Russia and China took advantage of the previous U.S. administration's failure to pay attention to Africa's economic and political challenges for several reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The United States wants to highlight the following: 

• Africa and the United States shared values to foster new economic engagement.
• Reinforce the US-Africa commitment to democracy and human rights.
• Advance peace, security, and good governance worldwide.

We hope our African leaders will learn to support their countries from this summit. 

Please visit Liberianfuturedefender.com for updates. 

           The United States and its NATO partners did an incredible job supporting Ukraine and defending democracy. The western countries spent billions of dollars on military assistance and humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine. Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine creates worldwide economic challenges and food shortages. Putin is not accountable to his people. Therefore, he might continue fighting regardless of economic and human losses, hoping the western leaders would give up due to economic hardship and political pressure. Putin's miscalculation could cost many lives and cause instability worldwide.

           The western power needs to be aware of Putin's game plan. His only chance of gaining an advantage is to threaten NATO with his nuclear weapon or NUKE. He believes he can use it as a deterrence to deny Ukrainians the weapons they need to stop his forces. This strategy appears to be working. There is a danger not only to Ukraine but to all of Europe. There is no realistic possibility that Russia will use weapons of mass destruction without Russia's existence being threatening. Putin could potentially change the geopolitical landscape on the continent and send a green light to other dictators to use NUKES as deterrence to get what they want.

                The west needs to take appropriate actions to send Putin's forces home. Ukraine is not likely to gain an advantage over Russia in this conflict without airpower, more long-range artilleries, and intelligence. Therefore, the United States and its allies must provide the right weapons to force Putin to go home or come to the negotiating table. At the beginning of July, Putin began showing signs of realizing the limited capacity of his conventional military power. He told the Ukrainians to negotiate now to end the war, or there would be no chance of doing so in the future. He knows his military has no chance of defeating Ukraine as long as the United States and its NATO allies stand firm behind Ukraine.