Mad and Thoughtless


A Russian Post

BBC has a story on their website today quoting President Putin saying, “The sanctions imposed by the West on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine are “mad and thoughtless.”

Putin continued, “The economic blitzkrieg against Russia had no chance of succeeding from the very beginning.”

A blitzkrieg is ‘lightning war’. Historically, it’s a word that has been strongly associated with Hitler’s attack on Europe in World War II. Putin’s attack on Ukraine was no blitzkrieg. The Encyclopedia Britannica offers clarification “In just over six weeks, German armed forces overran Belgium and the Netherlands, drove the British Expeditionary Force from the Continent, captured Paris, and forced the surrender of the French government.”

Lightning attacks were not new to the German command. They used such tactics in the 19th century. By World War II, the ruthless General Heinz Guderian was Chief of the General Staff of the German Army High Command. He was instrumental in developing the panzer division concept and the first ever to have radios installed in all his country’s tanks. These radios allowed the tanks to communicate on the move and co-ordinate their strategies and attacks. At one point, on the way to Paris, the tanks were ordered by the High Command to stop. Neither Guderian nor German Field Marshall Rommel (The Desert Fox) obeyed that order.

If Putin thought his invasion of the Ukraine was going to be a blitzkrieg, he was dreaming. He attacked on February 24 which is about 18 weeks ago and his victory is not yet assured. Furthermore, according to this BBC story “Mr. Putin’s own officials have warned that the Russian economy is suffering serious damage from the sanctions. Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on Thursday that ‘15% of the country’s GDP’ was threatened by the international response.

She further said, “It‘s obvious to everyone that it won’t be as it was before. External conditions have changed for a long time indeed, if not forever.”

Copyright © by Marketing Options Inc. 2022. Flags courtesy of flagpedia.

Steve Carlson is the President of Marketing Options Inc.

Leave a Reply