During the failed August 1991 putsch in Russia, the good guys were reformers Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. The bad guys were an incompetent claque of the military and KGB within the Politburo, and the rebellion fizzled when Yeltsin climbed on that tank in Moscow. The Kremlin’s nukes were kept secure, and the world caught its breath. The once all-powerful Soviet Union then peacefully flickered out of existence.
Today, the standoff in Russia offers a lot less optimism. There is no white hat promising freedom and liberty, only black hats: Yevgeny Prigozhin of the Wagner Group of mercenaries versus Vladimir Putin and another really bad guy, the dictator of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, being the truce-maker.
Are the nukes secured from rogue elements? It seems the answer is yes. The added question is whether the only good guys around, the invaded Ukrainians, can get some relief from the open quarreling in the Russian camp. We hope so.
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Putin’s horrible war of conquest against Ukraine is what caused all of this. Prigozhin’s Wagner army for hire has been the only effective force for the Kremlin against Kyiv.Â
The Americans and our allies have to help Ukraine succeed this summer.
The poor wartime performance of Czar Nicholas’s Russian Army in 1905 (against Japan) and 1917 (against the Kaiser) both precipitated revolutions in Russia. We will see if the poor wartime performance of Czar Vladimir’s Russian Army in Ukraine will do the same. The world watches.
