This week my daily walk is dominated by the changing colours of autumn and the ground laden with falling leaves. It seems echoed in events. First to the humiliation of Vlad the Bad. So it appears the Russians are retreating from Kherson, the one and only city they have captured since the war began.
Ever the vain narcissistic coward that he is, he trots out Russia’s top military commander, Sergei Shoigu, to announce the retreat on state television saying “We will save the lives of our soldiers and the fighting capacity of our units”. Then in a scene from what looks like some awful B movie the Russian Minister of Defence says he agreed and states “ For us the lives and health of Russian servicemen is always a priority. We must also take into account the threats to the civilian population”. Lies, damn lies. This coming from a man who is presiding over a war where Russian conscripts are being treated as cannon fodder and as for the civilian population, they are being subjected to artillery bombardments on a daily basis that should be defined as war crimes. Still, hiding behind this grotesque piece of theatre is the arch villain of the so-called Special Military Operation, Vlad the Bad. As recently as September he announced that the residents of Kherson were “ becoming our citizens forever”. Some 6 weeks later that boast has turned to dust. By any measure this is a disaster for Vlad the Bad. One former Putin adviser Sergei Markov likened the retreat to the collapse of the Soviet Union, stating “ the political consequences of this huge defeat will be really big”. In an ominous portent of things to come, the Deputy Governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a mysterious car crash. In circumstances like this, one wonders what is really going on in the Kremlin.
If one egomaniac is possibly worried about his future what about the dangerous buffoon from Florida, Donald Trump. Apparently on Tuesday from his gaudy emporium in Palm Beach, Florida, he intends to announce that he is going to run again for the White House. This must fill a lot of mainstream Republicans with a sense of dread. However, the mid-terms have severely damaged the Donald’s hold on the Republican Party. Many of the candidates he endorsed failed, none more so than Dr. Oz, a television personality who appeared 60 times on the Oprah Winfrey Show and then went on to have his own. He was beaten in the Senate race for Pennsylvania by the Democrat candidate, John Fetterman. If the truth be known the deluded bully has a serious rival in Ronald deSantis, the re-elected Governor for Florida, who the Donald nicknamed Ron deSanctimonious. DeSantis further burnished his republican credentials by delivering 3 new seats to the house. I look forward to the dog-fight. Finally, well done to Rishi Sunak, the first British PM to attend a British/Irish council since 2007. A change of mood music. Now we want progress on the Protocol.