JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Putin made himself Maidan-proof by waging war on Ukraine” – Al Jazeera

“Since its start, the conflict in Ukraine has been tightly linked to Putin’s fear of an opposition-led challenge to his rule.”

“… Putin’s main dark art, which has helped him stay in power for so long, is that of shifting public attention away from domestic troubles. Less than two months after the Navalny protests were suppressed, he ordered the deployment of a massive force at the Russian border with Ukraine in what became a prelude to the full-scale invasion of this country a year later. These two themes – Russia’s internal instability and the war in Ukraine – are fundamentally interlinked. By waging a war in Ukraine, Putin is avoiding confrontation with his own population and keeping the opposition at bay. … [E]scalation and eventual full-scale invasion of Ukraine[] allowed Putin to do away with the Russian opposition and remove the threat to his regime. …”

Click here for: “How Putin made himself Maidan-proof by waging war on Ukraine; Since its start, the conflict in Ukraine has been tightly linked to Putin’s fear of an opposition-led challenge to his rule.” – Al Jazeera/ Leonid Ragozin