Putin's threatening weakness

The speech delivered yesterday by Vladimir Putin does not give off the slightest awareness of the delicate situation that his army is going through in the war that he himself started.

On the first occasion that he has addressed his fellow citizens on television since February 24, when he launched the war against Ukraine under the euphemism of a military-technical operation, the Russian president announced a partial mobilization, instead of the total mobilization that he his most radical supporters demanded.

With it, he intends to recruit a population with military experience without giving up the threatening discourse on the use of nuclear weapons if the territorial integrity of Russia were in danger.

The allusion is aggravated by the warning that "it is not a bluff", according to Putin,

More information

Last minute of the war in Ukraine, live

There are many doubts about the human capabilities of the Russian Army, especially after the failed invasion of kyiv and in view of the numerous casualties suffered.

Quotas of professional troops, hired volunteers and even mercenaries of the private Wagner company have been shown powerless and have been decimated.

The significant investments of recent years, thanks to the high prices of energy and raw materials, have only served to increase the quantity and quality of weapons, little for training and professionalism, and nothing for the eradication of the corruption and bad practices demonstrated earlier in Chechnya and in Syria.

Mass recruitment among the prison population has made matters worse, so no one can expect this partial mobilization to quickly provide the efficient and modern troops that Russia would need to continue waging the war.

Putin has wanted to buy time with this mobilization of citizens aimed at having more troops, without at the same time provoking a popular reaction of rejection.

Putin trusts the effects of his threats and power cuts on the unity and resolve of Volodymyr Zelensky's allies, perhaps with the help that electoral results in European governments more prone to equidistance, such as the case of Italy next Sunday if the neo-fascist and Atlanticist Giorgia Meloni presides over a government with a pro-Russian Salvini.

The nuclear trump card that it has now exhibited without any inhibition acquires a special significance after the organization of false self-determination referendums in four provinces only partially occupied by Russia.

Organized in conditions of war and occupation, they fail to meet all the requirements of legality and credibility for a consultation.

The results of the polls can only serve as an argument to threaten with the nuclear resource in the face of an attack on the territory that Russia considers its own.

The quickest way to end this war is not by giving in to Putin's threats or giving in to his nuclear blackmail.

On the contrary, there are visible signs of an Army in retreat and perhaps defeated.

Things are getting complicated for the Russian president at home and in the world, where opposition to the war is growing even among those who understood him the most until now.

For the war to be as short as possible, there is nothing better than maintaining the unity of the allies, making sure that Ukraine has the weapons it needs, and continuing to support its government and its population with economic solidarity and aid to refugees.