NBC News reports that Russia has deployed around 90,000 troops along the Russia/Ukraine border. The troops are reportedly limiting their movements to night-time as part of an effort to avoid surveillance by spy-planes and satellites. The rising military tensions occur as President Joe Biden is preparing for a video call with Putin next week.
The tensions are rising as Ukrainian President Zelensky is accusing Ukraine’s wealthiest man, Rinat Akhmetov of conspiring with the Russian government to try to create a Russian-backed puppet government in the Ukraine.
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov declared in a recent article for the Atlantic Council that: “Ukraine’s comparatively calm response to this latest Russian threat reflects the long-term nature of the ongoing conflict between our two countries. It is now almost eight years since Russia first attacked Ukraine. Russian aggression has not stopped since, and has become part of everyday life. We have become indifferent to the relentless flow of Kremlin disinformation and have grown accustomed to the Russian leadership’s attempts to deny Ukraine’s right to exist. It would take more than yet another Russian military build-up to shock us.”
The use of an extremely narcissistic billionaire with authoritarian tendencies and a reputation for rampant self-promotion to try to gain influence in the politics of a foreign country should be an immediately obvious pattern to everyone in the United States. The threat to Ukraine is that Akhmetov has a reputation for being a business-savvy Machiavellian, rather than just a pompous, bloviating boar. Although Akhmetov appears to have pulled back on his efforts after being called out by President Zelensky, he may emerge again in the future, eager to position himself as a “Ukrainian Mussolini”.
Russia Analyst Keir Giles recently wrote that: “Rather than focusing on not losing further ground, Russia now appears confident in its ability to transition to an offensive posture and pursue its own priorities. The pattern indicates that Russia is no longer pretending to be interested in a good, or even functional, relationship with the European Union (EU), NATO, or major Western powers.”