In the war in Ukraine, the strategy of the crazy neighbor – Libération

The Russian president, who claimed responsibility for firing a new type of missile against Ukraine, is adopting increasingly confusing apocalyptic rhetoric. A carefully implemented strategy to increase pressure on Ukrainians and Westerners.

The spokesperson for the Russian presidency said this Friday «certain» that the West had “Understood” the message from Vladimir Putin in his speech the day before, claiming responsibility for the firing of a new type of missile against Ukraine. Analyzing this increasingly confusing apocalyptic rhetoric, bordering on parody – “yesterday's speech was very, very exhaustive, clear, logical”, continued the Kremlin – it was difficult not to think of actor Peter Sellers in the role of the President of the United States fearing an automatic nuclear response, confessing to the Soviet ambassador, in Doctor Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick, which he had “increasingly difficult to understand”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately described Putin as “crazy neighbor”.

Our investigation demonstrates that this cryptic shadow play was carefully staged to increase pressure on Ukraine's Western allies, including France, while attempting to transform the Russian public's perception of the war into illusion of victory, a thousand days after a “special operation” which was to last four. Putin's confirmation that his army had indeed fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, by definition intended for nuclear strikes, on another country, for a “test flight”, is paradoxically even more serious than the strike itself: there can no longer be any question for Europe of being content with conditional condemnations, claiming a lack of information on the missile fired by Russia.

The Quai d'Orsay has also confirmed an extraordinary meeting of the NATO council on Tuesday, and American Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend a G7 meeting in Italy this weekend to prepare it. On the menu, the reaffirmation that behind the Grand Guignol of nuclear threats, victorious postures and hyperbolically named missiles, there are two world visions which clash in the east of Europe, and that the camp of solidarity and international law cannot retreat.