Putin ally says the Ukraine war is a REHEARSAL for a bigger conflict between Russia and NATO and a 'learning experience'

 Micro-managing his failing offensive, top advisors frozen out and food tasters to guard against would-be assassins. No, it's not Adolf Hitler in 1945. Professor MARK GALEOTTI examines the madness and paranoia inside Vladimir Putin's isolated bunker

• Both leaders’ ignored counsel, and micro-manage military manoeuvres despite not having the experience   
• Putin has staff, bodyguards and food tasters but senior ministers and aides have been distanced for months 
• Kremlin's new lasers to destroy satellites reminded Volodymyr Zelensky of the Nazis’ Wunderwaffe
• Hitler's Berlin bunker may have inspired Putin to have something similar as he prefers video conferencing
  
  
  
  Some years ago, I lived on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, one of the wide, radial roads that leads into central Moscow — and the favoured route of President Vladimir Putin’s motorcade to the Kremlin.

• Putin never liked travelling in helicopters so the 18-vehicle extravaganza, including outriders, an ambulance and a string of gleaming, black limousines with tinted glass, was a familiar sight.

  Around 45 minutes before it passed, the road would be sealed — and I mean sealed. A security man was stationed in the doorway of my apartment building preventing residents from leaving.

  The Russian president has always been security conscious, but today, on the losing side of his ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine for which he has only himself to blame, Putin is more paranoid than ever.

  He rarely ventures even into his office at the Kremlin now, preferring to do business from his grand, yellow-painted, pillared mansion on his summer estate, Novo-Ogaryovo, in an exclusive suburb popular with rock stars and oligarchs just west of Moscow.

  People come to him if and when he wants to see them. And increasingly, he doesn’t.

  He has his staff, his bodyguards, his team of food tasters and so on, but for months senior ministers, advisers and aides with whom he would once frequently consult, have been kept at a distance. The pandemic facilitated this — but he shows no sign of wanting to change the status quo.

• FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10838581/Professor-MARK-GALEOTTI-examines-madness-paranoia-inside-Vladimir-Putins-isolated-bunker.html

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Putin ally says the Ukraine war is a REHEARSAL for a bigger conflict between Russia and NATO and a 'learning experience'

• Moscow State University associate professor Alexei Fenenko made the claims
• He said war in Ukraine 'is a rehearsal for a possible larger conflict in the future' 
• Fenenko said it's a learning experience for Russia to test weapons against NATO 
• It is the latest example of Kremlin's push to control the narrative of the invasion
• But Russia has lost over 28,000 troops and thousands of military vehicles and weapons according to the latest data provided by Ukraine's armed forces

• A Russian political science professor has claimed the war in Ukraine could simply be a 'rehearsal' for a bigger conflict, allowing Russia's military to test and compare its firepower with that of NATO.

  Alexei Fenenko, an associate professor at Moscow State University's school of world politics and a research fellow at the Institute of International Security Studies, made the incredible claim yesterday during a talk show on Kremlin-controlled TV channel Russia One.

  'I think the war in Ukraine... is a rehearsal for a possible larger conflict in the future. We are testing our weapons against those of NATO, we will find out how much stronger our weapons are than theirs,' the professor declared.

• FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10837679/Putin-ally-says-Ukraine-war-REHEARSAL-bigger-conflict-Russia-NATO.html