Russia calls in North Korean cavalry
Russia has been waging a genocidal war in Ukraine for nearly three years. Now it’s bogged down.
In fact, Russian troops are so beleaguered that President Putin has reportedly bartered with fellow pariah Kim Jong-un for North Korean reinforcements. Kim offered tens of thousands of his soldiers for the meat grinder that has already swallowed hundreds of thousands of Putin’s. It’s a transcation that betrays just what birds of a feather they are.
Failing in Ukraine, Russia targets Georgia and Moldova
Given his Ukrainian quagmire, it seems like folly for Putin to set his sights on Georgia and Moldova. But doubling down is a standard play for dictators. And bear in mind that invading Ukraine was only part of Putin’s imperialist plan to reclaim Russia’s sphere of influence over former Soviet satellites.
Recall how he seized Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions by force in 2008. He followed the same playbook in Ukraine, seizing Luhansk and Donetsk in 2014. But just as he failed to reclaim all of Georgia, it’s now clear that he’ll fail to reclaim all of Ukraine.
That’s why Putin must welcome accusations from Georgian and Moldovan leaders that he’s meddling in their elections. After all, creating chaos abroad diverts international attention from his failures in Ukraine.
On Monday, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili even joined protests demanding the annulment of election results. Most Georgians were outraged that the election commission declared the pro-Russian ruling party the clear winner and the pro-EU referendum, favored by most Georgians, a loser. Moldovans found their election results equally dubious.
Stalled ground war has Russia resorting to cyber warfare
Of course, it speaks volumes that, instead of military aggression, Putin is resorting to cyberwarfare to reassert dominion over his neighbors. After all, this is the same cyberwarfare he uses to create mischief and sow discord in the far more powerful EU and US.
More to the point, Russia can hardly mount another invasion if it’s recruiting North Korean troops just to reclaim territory lost within its own borders to Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Georgia and Moldova might take perverse comfort in knowing that.
