In The Unz Review, Ron Unz discusses the current situation of Russia in its war with Ukraine. Ukraine has been battering Russian oil infrastructure and logistics, putting Vladimir Putin and his friends in a tight spot. Unz reports:
Many major Russian refineries have been damaged by these long-distance drone attacks, even those in distant Siberia. The result has been a severe shortage of fuel in many parts of the country, including in the capital of Moscow, with first-hand observers confirming that Russians have been restricted in their gasoline purchases and often forced to wait in long lines to buy it. The problem has become so serious that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that Russia was urgently seeking to import replacement supplies from overseas. This obviously constituted a major national humiliation for one of the world’s largest oil producing countries, and potentially a serious blow to the Russian economy.
The huge drone strike against St. Petersburg had coincided with the annual meeting of the prestigious St. Petersburg Economic Forum, timing that was obviously aimed at embarrassing the Russian government.
For centuries the Crimean Peninsula has been one of Russia’s greatest national jewels, with its major city of Sebastopol being one of Russia’s most important naval bases. But the Ukrainian drone strikes have become so severe that its territory has been mostly cut off from the rest of Russia, almost transformed into an island.
Stanislav Krapivnik is a Russian-born former American military officer who moved back to his original homeland some years ago and now lives in Moscow. He is extremely sympathetic to Russia in the current conflict, but in his interview with Prof. Glenn Diesen a few days ago he fully confirmed the very serious problems Russians were now facing both from those shortages and from the constant terror attacks against civilians by Ukrainian drones in border regions. He considered this an absolutely unacceptable situation that couldn’t be allowed to continue, and that a conventional or nuclear war with Europe was unavoidable.
Read more here.
