PUTIN EYEING POLAND: Latest Russian Propaganda Sparks Outrage

In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, back before we knew just how ineffective Moscow’s military actually was, there were fears that Vladimir Putin was eyeing more than just Kyiv.

This is Putin, after all:  A megalomaniac to a degree that rivals the villains in the worst of the James Bond movies.  Imperialism, victory at all costs; these are his key character traits.  And, to make matters worse, his fatalist attitude was behind validated and exacerbated by a credibly-alleged terminal cancer diagnosis.

Now, one year into his failing conflict in Ukraine, there is talk of Poland being next on the Kremlin’s list.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that the only way for Moscow to ensure a lasting peace with Ukraine was to push back the borders of hostile states as far as possible, even if that meant the frontiers of NATO member Poland.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comments in a message on his Telegram account exactly a year after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers and ensure its own security.

Ukraine says it is defending itself from an unprovoked colonial-style war of aggression and has vowed to retake all of its own territory by force, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Of course Medvedev’s outlook on the state of the war is reason enough to doubt his sanity.

Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, forecast on Friday that Russia would be victorious and that some kind of loose agreement would eventually end the fighting.

“Victory will be achieved. We all want it to happen as soon as possible. And that day will come,” said Medvedev. He predicted that tough negotiations with Ukraine and the West would follow that would culminate in “some kind of agreement.”

Russia’s embarrassing performance in Ukraine has already diminished whatever military deterrent they were once believed to possess, and so it stands to reckon that the moment the Kremlin targets another nation’s sovereignty, the world will be stepping in.