I’m not a fan of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Anyone who is rational would not be either if they actually paid attention to what his country has morphed into since 2008.

On Sunday, I did a dive into how bad it has gotten — that some Americans who claim to love this country or the Presidency of Donald Trump are now offering cover for Putin and his invasion of Ukraine right here with my post. Trump Is Being Betrayed by Anyone Who Says They Support Both Him and Putin’s Invasion. If you are one of those people who don’t believe that these oxygen thieves exist, go read the comments of that article, truly it is enlighting.

Even though I’m not an admirer of the Russian leader I’m a realist and understand how the world works.

He was elected as a reformer, he improved the morbid Russian economy of the 1990s and he has used the moderate success of those programs to push for his quest to make Russia a world player again. Part of that is to make sure that the former Soviet Union regions that were once under Russian control get back under their control.

Now, it simply looks like he has overestimated his move into Ukraine and he is paying a price for it — not just on the international stage but possibly domestically.

The Kremlin has not been able to keep secret the unrest — both with Putin and what he sees as unsatisfactory work of his subordinates, and with some in his circle who are looking at him sideways on his handling of the invasion of Ukraine. Case in point, my colleague Streiff had this article last week Top General in Putin’s Personal Army Is Arrested by FSB. From that article…

Multiple sources report that Vladimir Putin has ordered the arrest and detention of General Roman Gavrilov, the deputy director of Rosgvardiya, or the National Guard of Russia. This National Guard is not to be confused with anything like our National Guard. The Rosgvardia is composed of internal security troops, from police to paratroops and special forces, that report directly to Vladimir Putin and whose responsibility is the stability of the state.

The article goes on to show that there was a bit of back and forth in official releases from the Kremlin on what actually happened to Gavrilov. He also has arrested others, which all adds up to someone who might be facing some opposition that he has not faced since he gained control of the Russian state in 2000.

Now there is even talk about Putin being replaced through various means as the leader of Russia.

From The Foreign Desk…

The incendiary claim came from the Chief Directorate of Intelligence for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Sunday via a post on the ministry’s official Facebook page. The post boldly begins with, “Poisoning, sudden disease, accident—Russian elite considers the possibility of removing Putin.”

“In the environment of the Russian business and political elite, a group of influential persons opposing [Vladimir Putin] is formed,” the post reads. “Their goal is to remove Putin from power as soon as possible and restore economic ties with the West, destroyed due to the war in Ukraine.”

The alleged group is not only planning to potentially assassinate Putin, the post claims, it has also decided on a potential successor: Alexander Bortnikov, who currently serves as Russia’s Federal Security Service director, and headed up the analysis of the Ukrainian population and military capabilities ahead of the recent invasion.

This report is most likely part of the public relations war that all entities do to try and get into their opponents’ heads. However, the interesting thing here is that Ukraine, in releasing this report, is doing exactly what Russia would do and has in the past. That must tick off some in the Kremlin at the sheer audacity of the Ukraine officials to do such a thing.

Putin is most likely not on the brink of being replaced but he is being challenged in a way that he never has and how he deals with this will be key to him staying in power. This was war is 100 percent on him. The world let him roll into Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014. He never expected this type of pushback from Ukraine or the civilized world and looking into the mirror must be confusing for him these days.

All the excuses from Putin apologists or Putin himself can’t change that.