The goal of the USA in this war is complete victory of Ukraine and weakening of Russia so that it can never repeat such an aggression, - Piontkovsky

A pivotal moment is literally unfolding before our eyes. It is connected on the one hand with Blinken's visit and extremely important decisions reached at Ramstein, but at the same time, the article by Generals Zabrodskyi and Zaluzhnyi became a certain signal missile that started or manifested a fundamentally new era, as they outlined a clear perimeter of the war and turned to our allies with an unequivocal hint, ‘We need missiles in order not to let Russia get away with what it has done’.

Yes, indeed, September 8 abounded in historic events. This was a key meeting of Ramstein, where they finally overcame Sullivan's "Putin-ferstein" opposition in the American administration to the provision of long-range HIMARS and ATACMS missiles, the symbolic visit of Blinken to Kyiv, and the "selector meeting"  (as in Soviet terminology) which Biden held with his allies regarding aid to Ukraine. In my opinion, that is to a large extent the result of primarily Ukrainian diplomacy and the combat successes of the Armed Forces. However, as for the internal political struggle, particularly in the American administration, this is the result of the manifesto of 20 prominent American political and military leaders, which we were talking about last time. Manifesto: America must arm Ukraine today, before it's too late. This is the manifesto of August 17, where President Biden was sharply asked a very direct question, ‘Are we supplying weapons to Ukraine in order to defeat Russia in this war, in which it is defending the entire world civilization, or in order to keep this war balance, and God forbid, as your advisers sometimes say, so that there is no escalation of the conflict’. The answer was provided by the whole series of events, but above all, by the new package of weapons, the symbolic visit of Blinken with America confirming Austin’s words, as he stated on April 25 in Kyiv, ‘The goal of the United States in this war is victory of Ukraine, complete restoration of its territorial integrity and weakening of Russia to such an extent so that it could never repeat such an aggression. Since April 25, this statement has never been so clearly confirmed by the entire American administration, including President Biden, as it was done on September 8. I think that this is a key turning point in the Ukrainian-Russian war. And you correctly remembered the meaning of the article by Generals Zaluzhnyi and Zabrodskyi. I will tell you even more, my feeling as an expert is that there are two other co-authors of this article - General Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley working together on all the documents. And this article was designed to help them in the internal American struggle. So, this is a statement by four generals, two Ukrainian and two American, about the goals of the US allies, Ukraine and, of course, Great Britain, whose new prime minister is about to visit Ukraine in the coming days. The Allies intend to defeat Russia in this war.

We heard two phrases from Putin. The first one is about the so-called "rubber ass". And the second one, which is also extremely characteristic, he said that Russia did not lose anything during the war against Ukraine. He appears to be already ready to make excuses.

As for this phrase, not an international tribunal, but a Russian one, under the new government, will demand a trial against him. It is a terrible phrase, but it characterizes the complete state of disintegration of his personality. This has already been noticed, we see very fat rats starting to run away from Putin's ship, realizing that this madman will only lead them to disaster. First of all, I am referring to the strange demarches around the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

If possible, let's now detail this situation. Why did he begin to hint about his possible leaving the post, and why did he return to his old position so fast? What do you think really happened?

First of all, I think that the talks about his transfer to Moscow, about his promotion were initiated by the security forces. Here it is worth understanding that the security forces unanimously hate Kadyrov. After all, Kadyrov essentially won the war with Russia, with Putin having made peace with him. In fact, Putin capitulated and now pays a huge tribute to Chechnya for the fact that Kadyrov, firstly, portrays loyalty to the Russian Federation, confirms that Chechnya is part of Russia, and secondly, participates in various adventures with his armed forces. The security forces were against such decisions of Putin, they hate Kadyrov and even made an attempt to deal with him after the murder of Nemtsov in 2015. This assassination was organized by the FSB, by means of several ordinary Chechen executors. And they immediately solved the case within two days, having found the perpetrators and even went to Chechnya to arrest people close to Kadyrov. They tried to use the murder to hang everything on Kadyrov and get rid of him. It even brought about a serious political crisis in Moscow. Putin then disappeared for two weeks. Eventually, he stood up for Kadyrov, but the attitude of the security forces did not change. They probably wanted to drag him to Moscow under the pretext of promoting him. But no matter how high the position he would receive in Moscow is, being even the head of the Russian Guard, the Minister of Defense, the Vice President of Russia, the next day he would be shot in the back of the head by the security forces. And he is perfectly aware of this. Therefore, he will not go to Moscow. Like Antaeus, he will be torn away from Chechnya, or rather from his own army of 20,000 fighters, and that will be it. But he will not be able to leave his post either, because in Moscow he will be killed by the security forces, and in Chechnya there will be a huge number of bloodsuckers. So when he made this pact with Putin, a lot of Chechens were unhappy, they demanded to continue the struggle for the independence of Chechnya until the end, and he dealt with them very cruelly, having killed many people. Therefore, the only way for him to stay alive is to stay in Chechnya at the head of his army. And he understands that there is no place for him in post-Putin Russia, that he will be killed immediately by the new leaders of Russia. Along with many others with certain knowledge in military affairs, he understands that Putin's defeat is already seen at the horizon. He is already concerned about his place in post-Putin Russia. And this place will be, of course, as the head of a huge military contingent fighting for the independence of Chechnya. Because the new post-Putin government will not support this contract concluded with Putin and will try to impose its will at least on Chechnya, after having lost Ukraine. This is the first bell of the beginning of the post-Putin disintegration of Russia as a result of defeat in the war.

I agree with you, the situation is really serious and Kadyrov's demarche is extremely symptomatic. On the other hand, we see how much the so-called white general's various positions seem to have strengthened. We are talking about Patrushev, Naryshkin, Bortnikov. There is a feeling that they are really, as you rightly noted, preparing for the post-Putin Russia, and this does not imply some kind of soft transition of power. We no longer see or hear Shoigu's name among possible heirs. By the way, now we have the anniversary of the strange death of Zinichev at the Reichenbach Falls, by analogy with the work of Conan Doyle, I no longer remember the name of that Russian waterfall where they threw that Zinichev, but he was amidst those security forces who could inherit or strengthen Putin's transit.

Well, Zinichev was dealt with in relatively calm times for Putin. On the other hand, now when Ukraine has gone on the counter-offensive, you are probably also peeping into these Telegram channels of Putin's ultra-fascists, they are in a panic, they are now repeating all of Girkin's theses, well known to the Ukrainian audience. He demands to hang Putin as a traitor, the ultra-fascist party puts the blame on him for the defeat, for the failure of the special operation, but actually for the defeat in the war. Therefore, a very deep internal political crisis is growing in Russia, and these are only the first, relatively modest, successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but can you imagine what will happen after pretty likely events, such as the liberation of Kherson and the destruction of the Crimean bridge. I guarantee you that Putin will not survive these events politically.

And an extremely important point, which is also worth noting in the article of Generals Zabrodskyi and Zaluzhnyi, is that they say that the main task is to deprive Russian citizens of the feeling of impunity for those crimes committed by the Russian Federation and tolerated by Putin.

In my opinion, President Zelenskyi put an end to any negotiation process with his address to the nation on the occasion of Independence Day on August 24. He asked a rhetorical question, ‘What is the end of the war for us? We used to say peace, now we say victory’. There can be no negotiations now, at least until the withdrawal of Russian troops to the line as of February 22. Even so, this withdrawal will only be the beginning of peace negotiations on the full restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. This ultimatum from Ukraine, in fact from the collective West, was put forward to Russia, and it will be accepted by the new post-Putin government after these two historical events, which I have already mentioned, the liberation of Kherson and the destruction of the Crimean bridge, but it seems that there are also great successes on the Kharkiv frontline. Do not cherish illusions that some wonderful people of the new beautiful Russia will come to power, no one but scoundrels like Putin will come. There is nowhere to get others in the bunker. They will take into account military realities and accept this ultimatum. And very important new points for the Ukrainian government and society were made in the article by Zabrodskyi and Zaluzhnyi about the fact that there will be no more impunity in Russia, and they meant not only the impunity of the government, but also of Russian society. Americans are asked questions there, as the main theses of the article were repeated by the Pentagon on the day of publication on its behalf. ‘You remember that the war may continue throughout 2023’. And the thesis that Russia has such a lower vulnerability due to the range of its means of attack is accepted by the American command. The two main trends of the article are accessibility and impunity. This is a completely new formulation of the question. This is roughly the same as what Hitler's Germany faced in 1944 when the British began bombing its cities. I am not saying that the bombing of Russian cities will begin tomorrow. It's just that the Americans and their allies are reminding us that the destruction of the civilian Ukrainian population, which they are doing with impunity, will not be accepted and will not continue.

Over a hundred years ago, in 1914, the World War began after general mobilization was announced in Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire, and so on down the list. Currently, there is no general mobilization in Russia. Putin for some reason does not do it, and the article by Zabrodskyi and Zaluzhnyi records the new state of affairs, that is, the war will not end this year, and it is likely to continue for the whole 2023.

Putin probably has a better sociology than you and I, obtained from his secret services, he is desperately afraid of mobilization. But it is obvious that the military insists on this. He changes generals after a leak of information, and attacks them with obscene language during his conference. They are already trying to lash out at him, and their main argument is, ‘We don't have enough strength, we need mobilization’. For all that, he understands that mobilization will mean a social catastrophe for him. The house of cards of national support for the Russian peace, the so-called rescue of compatriots, will collapse at the same time. It's one thing that there are still people who are ready to watch this on TV with some pseudo-patriotic feeling, but no one wants to go and die for Putin's crazy ideas, otherwise he wouldn't have mobilized criminals, bandits, or recruited 50-year-old volunteers, when families are already sending grandfathers to get a Lada car in case of their death. Russian propaganda reached such an idiocy that they showed a video of social advertising: a grandfather was killed, and a happy family is going to a funeral in a car. But it dawned on them at the last moment, and they removed this video from the broadcast in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was only shown to a hungry province where it could ring a bell. 

Look, a big technological state is asking for military help from Iran and North Korea, leaving Syria, leaving Karabakh, leaving everything to Erdogan, making him the full master of both Syria and the South Caucasus. He takes his vaunted S-300 systems out of there in order to shoot not at planes, but at ground targets. He is running out of Caliber and Iskander missiles, and he is forced to use these anti-aircraft missiles. This is a complete disaster. And of course, the general dissatisfaction of both the opponents of the war and the ultra-fascists, who demand its expansion, is rising in such an atmosphere. He found himself in an unenviable position.

But all the collective Putin Goebbels could sing their old song about the West trying to pounce on them and hang, so to speak, individual criminals on the birch trees near Kaluga and afterwards announce a mobilization. But they did not go for it.

Political disaster for Putin is very simple. After one of these key events, the liberation of Kherson and the destruction of the Crimean Bridge, he will be removed from power. We will hear Swan Lake again the next day, and in the intermission we will be informed that Comrade Putin has made a number of serious mistakes in the Ukrainian issue and due to his health, due to his advanced age, he can no longer fulfill his duties. There is a good date even for this, his anniversary, on October 7 he will turn 70. However, just like everything about Putin, it is fake - the date is fake, and his parents are fake, and the entire biography is fake, he will not be 70, but 72 years old. You can read it in detail, the whole chapter in Putin's biography. I recommend it to all viewers in the book Corporation by Pribylovsky and Felshinsky.

And why they were protracting till the last, it is about those forces that could accelerate his political career. As blood has been pouring for half a year, and for half a year there have been extremely powerful signals from Ukraine, and in particular from the USA.

Why did it take so long? You see, until recently both Putin and his entourage hoped for mediators, and even now he continues to hope to conclude, despite all that rhetoric about the destruction of the Ukrainian state, on the one hand, he speaks at various forums with his crazy speeches, and all his diplomacy is working to achieve a ceasefire and a truce. First, Draghi, Macron and Scholz were sent to Kyiv, with a plan that actually followed the Russian ship. Then he hired Erdogan and paid him a huge price, as I noted, by giving him complete freedom in the South Caucasus, Syria and Libya, once again completely selling out his ally, Armenia. By the way, the behavior of the leader of Armenia, Pashinyan, is shameful. Putin betrays him, the Armenian people over and over again, whereas he continues running around various forums after Putin and being a flatterer. But let the Armenian people deal with it. They hoped until the last moment that they would be able to conclude an agreement and then present it to the people as a kind of a fake victory. Indeed, if the hostilities on the engagement line stop, they will say, ‘Well, you see, we have already won back not only Crimea, but also part of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and saved our compatriots’. What did they hope for? That the truce would cause mass appeals by all Putin's agencies in Europe and the USA, 'Let's give peace a chance. Let's urgently stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine'. You saw the demonstrations organized in Europe. But on September 8, all these hopes received a strong rebuff. Biden simply gathered the leaders of all European countries, sent his secretary to Kyiv to express his support, and the defense minister to Ramstein to announce a new aid package, fundamentally surpassing all the previous ones. This is the answer of the West. No truce, Putin must lose the war.

We understand that it is wrong to rely on various pro-Russian figures, but in any case, they talked about putting off the date of the so-called fake referendum on the temporarily occupied lands. They used to talk about September, and now it is November. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is also continuing negotiations with Indonesia about possible participation or non-participation in the international forum, right?

You know, all these proposals will be now decided on the battlefield. On September 8, it was emphasized by everyone, including the US leaders, that Ukraine is not ready for negotiations because of the US position, so the future of Europe and the world is being decided now on the battlefield in Ukraine. And all those pathetic Russian plans are absolutely irrelevant. We know that a new security architecture is always formed after every world war by the victorious countries. After the Napoleonic Wars, it was the Vienna Congress of the Great Powers, after WWI - the Versailles Congress, after WWII - Potsdam. Therefore, now the plans of those who lost are of no interest to anyone. The future architecture of European and world security will be determined by the winning countries, and the first of them will be the country that made the biggest contribution to the victory, which is Ukraine.