Russian retired generals oppose Putin's Ukraine operation

 The Lid:

The White House ordered 3000 paratroopers to Poland, citing increased tensions with Russia. A report from PBS stated that Putin had already decided to invade Ukraine, something which the Pentagon denied, but said that the invasion could very well come during the Olympics. Russian General Leonid Ivashov (Ret) leads a group of retired officers who publicly object to Putin’s coming action.

“[W]e demand to abandon the criminal policy of provoking a war in which the Russian Federation will find itself alone against the united forces of the West … and resign,” wrote Ivashov, who retired in 2001 and has written extensively since about Russian military and international affairs.

The 3000 Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will join the 3000 other troops already staged in Poland, Germany, and Romania. The State Department has been making calls to the 30,000 or so Americans in Ukraine, urging them to vacate the country within the next 24-48- hours (Fox update). Meanwhile, Biden held a call with Putin Saturday morning.

Per the White House readout of the call:

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about Russia’s escalating military buildup on the borders of Ukraine. President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia. President Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing. President Biden was clear with President Putin that while the United States remains prepared to engage in diplomacy, in full coordination with our Allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios.

...

 Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Milley held a phone call with his counterpart Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov. According to the statement by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs office, the two “discussed several security-related issues of concern. Following past practice, both have agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.”

If a call like this was made during the Trump Administration a full transcript would have been on the front page of the Washington Post within a half-hour.

...

Is Biden’s movement of paratroopers and soldiers a distraction to pull our attention from Bidenflation, record-high illegal immigration, and continuing tyrannical actions which may cause a massive truckers’ convoy is scheduled to be headed to DC the first week of March? Biden calls Putin from Camp David instead of the White House situation room. That’s telling. People are beginning to rebel, and Biden can’t have that, so the war talk is upgraded. Their pushing could very well cause Putin to at least do that “minor incursion.”

But some of Putin’s own are beginning to object, and the person leading the objections is a retired hawkish general known to be a hardline nationalist who still champions the Soviet system and is close to the remains of the Communist party.

...

What Putin apparently is willing to go to war over is Ukraine joining NATO.  But that does not appear to be a topic of conversation between the US and Putin.  Putin wants a puppet government in Ukraine to make it a buffer state between NATO and Russia.  But NATO has never been an aggressor entity.  It is a defense pact.  Biden may be too addled to make an argument against the move and his administration appears to be led by intellectual lightweights.

See, also:

Last Chance to Prevent Ukraine Becoming Another Afghanistan

And: 

Donald Trump says Putin was 'emboldened' to invade Ukraine after the 'incompetent' US withdrawal from Afghanistan

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