Team Putin Threatens Maniacal Response to Bitter War Losses

This is precisely why I'm worried about Russia telling Russians to leave Crimea. Why are they telling their people to get out? Are they planning to do something awful there?

Daily Beast
Julia Davis
Published Sep. 15, 2022 4:47AM

The humiliating defeats of Russia’s Armed Forces in Ukraine are prompting the Kremlin’s mouthpieces to propose increasingly violent tactics. Lobbying for a “scorched earth” policy on state television, Russian pundits and expert guests have been openly comparing the Ukrainian battleground to Chechnya, Syria, and even the infamous Beslan school massacre, where Russian special forces killed many hostages along with their terrorist captors.

Appearing on Wednesday’s broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, military expert Igor Korotchenko said: “This is a new reality, which is why we should be acting quickly, harshly and uncompromisingly. First of all, we need to scale up our strikes against critical infrastructure in such a way that one region after the next, one district after another, Ukraine is plunged into darkness... By December, 20 million residents of Ukraine should flee to the West, to the European Union. This is our goal and the task we should accomplish.”

Korotchenko proposed: “Perhaps we should openly declare: ‘Leave. Zelensky is turning this territory into a real hell. No one knows what will happen here next. Twenty million, go to Europe.’ After that, we sink region after region into darkness. This is our enemy nation, the modern Third Reich, and we should act accordingly.”

Similar proposals permeated Russian airwaves, with experts arguing that the rules of the civilized world prohibiting war crimes are merely recommendations, compliance with which is optional. On Monday, appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at the Moscow State University, explained why those international conventions are irrelevant: “The rules of war, according to international conventions, are of an advisory nature: not to strike [certain objects], if possible. But it’s no longer possible.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-threatens-scorched-earth-response-to-bitter-losses-in-ukraine?ref=home