The Independent: Putin's Behavior Is Getting Weirder And Weirder

Experts said the Russian dictator's mental and physical condition had clearly deteriorated.

At the economic forum in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin looked sick and puffy, with his statements about the war in Ukraine being far from the truth and rather wild given the current situation on the battlefield.

According to The Independent, Putin claimed that Russia was winning on the battlefield in Ukraine and that business and the economy were thriving both at home and abroad. He also argued that the war can and should be won, and that Russia wants parts of four regions of Ukraine that his army has failed to fully capture.

The Independent notes that Putin is emulating Trump in his increasing unpredictability, and that this makes him increasingly dangerous. As Fiona Hill, the U.S. presidents Russia adviser, noted, Putin is getting "weirder," but he should not be written off.

The lack of progress in Ukraine is pushing Putin toward new actions and provocations. He now portrays Europe as Zelensky's main agent - Russian state media accuses European military and industry of providing fleets of drones to support the Ukrainian war machine.

"This raises the risk of Russia staging 'false flag operations' to justify extending the war to Belarus and on to the Baltic states and Eastern Balkans, which would mean attacking NATO partners. "There are fears of staged 'accidents' at nuclear power stations - and Chernobyl, site of the largest civilian nuclear accident of modern times in 1986, and Zaporozhye have recently seen military action," The Independent predicts.

The paper notes that while Putin is still in power, his circle of advisers and ideologues is shrinking and aging. In addition, they have not developed any formula for winning a war, truce or agreement:

"As the Russian leadership finds itself in a psychological stalemate, the risk that it will resort to old tricks - chemical and biological weapons - increases."

Peter Frankopan, a professor of world history at Oxford, suggested that the collapse of Putin's regime would mean anarchy in vast swathes of eastern Russia - where, he said, "there are arsenals of really terrible things - and who knows what would happen" if they were to get loose.

The most worrying thing should be the appalling human cost on both sides. Such a situation cannot last - and Putin probably realizes this: yet another cause for concern about his state of mind and political fitness, the article notes.

"I suspect it was the alarmingly obvious deterioration in the Russian leader's mental and physical condition that prompted the warning from the head of the British armed forces that we are now in greater danger than at any time in his lifetime," writes The Independent columnist Robert Fox.

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