A little surprising.
Perhaps Putin went too far for even his German partners when he indicated in his rambling speech that the country of Ukraine is a historical mistake and does not even have the right to exist as its own country.
There was also an implication in his speech that Belarus also does not have the right to exist as an independent country.
Putin could have just focused narrowly on the recognition of DPR/LPR because of the continuing years of unresolved violence in that area and the lack of a way forward under the Minsk agreements, but instead he gave a sweeping, paranoid speech imagining wholesale changes for tens or hundreds of millions of people based on Putin’s own crude historical analysis, exactly the kind of thing Hitler was wont to do.
This is what happens when leaders are not subject to term limits and become de facto presidents-for-life. They are no longer satisfied just to fix the potholes, they begin to project grandiose visions of the future in which they are the key world-historical figure.
We’ve seen with Saddam, Qaddafi, the leaders of North Korea, a lot of these presidents-for-life.
I wonder if any Russians who voted for the constitutional amendments removing term limits on Putin are having second thoughts now.
We are losing sight on what exactly Putin wants. What he wants is to keep Ukraine out of NATO.
Germany needs Russian energy. Many times in the past countries have gone to war over energy. Germany has done this. When Russia closes the energy valve to western Europe then things get interesting not before.
“This is what happens when leaders are not subject to term limits and become de facto presidents-for-life. ....
We’ve seen with Saddam, Qaddafi, the leaders of North Korea, a lot of these presidents-for-life.”
Let’s see:
Putin — reshaped the Russian military and economy after a collapse of major proportions to be in the top 10 worldwide. Yes, I think the Russians people are happy with their leader.
Xi Jinping — he has grown China to the #2 economic spot in the world and is likely to be #1 at the rate things are going.
Nguyễn Phú Trọng (Vietnam) — After being hammered by two of the most powerful countries on the planet (and winning) this country is ranked 37 in the world for nominal GDP.
Now look at term-limited leaders.
Jimmy Carter
Barak Obama
Joe Xiden
Justin Trudeau — while he does not have direct term limits he must win the support of the House of Commons and they do have 4-year term limits.
My point is, that I’m not so sure term limits are the problem. There are perfect examples of each type who serves their countries well and those who serve their country poorly.