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Propaganda is Putin’s Deadly Weapon of Choice
While Ukraine’s military struggle continues, Russian propagandists are undermining Ukraine, and NATO, in a hundred different ways.
As the conflict in Ukraine reaches its year-and-a-half point, world leaders, politicians on three continents, media outlets, and foreign policy experts, continue to watch nervously.
While plenty of authorities agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin has to be stopped — somehow — no consensus exists for how that might be accomplished.
Sanctions haven’t done much good, thus far. Countries like China and India bought all the cheap Russian energy the U.S. and E.U. nations eschewed for the sake of democracy — and then some.
No amount of international censure seems to penetrate the conscience of Vladimir Putin, so more of that isn’t likely to work. But NATO nations, the United States chief among them, are reluctant to pursue any solution involving direct military action.
Of course, plenty of countries, including the U.S., have eventually been dragged into military conflicts they had no intention of joining.
Crimes against humanity are like other violent crimes. Once the violence begins, no one knows what might happen. Escalation is unpredictable. Violence is gunpowder plus rocket fuel. Anything can happen.