Putin the Protector

Headline: “Putin may go to war to capture Ukraine. With Belarus, he did it without firing a shot.” How did this happen? Belarus’s repulsive strongman dictator Alexander Lukashenko used to be proud of his country’s independence. But then his tyrannical practices produced such a terrific backlash that he was in danger of being ousted from office. Putin said to him, we can assume, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from your ungrateful citizens. We’ll move in plenty of troops and tanks that will prevent any chance of a revolution and as an added gift protect you from conquest by Poland. We were of great help to the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, a brutal dictator just like you, so you know our heart is in the right place.”

Putin doesn’t need to conquer Ukraine if he can install a government subservient to him in that country. It’s for their own good, after all. They need protection from the West.