Putin commits political suicide on the evening of the attack on a Black Sea beach in the Krasnodar region that killed seven, including children

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Democracy is not only the best political system around because all the others are worse. It is the best because it assumes common sense and sound judgment in a great swathe, sometimes even the majority of the general population. It gives us reason for hope that bad policies and bad politician can be changed peacefully from time to time without bloodshed.  And for that reason, I am delighted to receive  comments from my readers such as the following from a certain “Eric” whose email address indicates that he is likely writing from Russia. My point is that you don’t have to have an advanced degree in political science to see through rubbish that state broadcasters may send you, and to do this entirely on your own and without coaching.

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Now there was at least proper reports of it on Vesti this morning, but yesterday there was nothing at all about the drone terrorism near Gelendzhik on the news.

Instead they lead with the worthless image of Putin kicking a football around the stage as part of a youth award event. Embarassing.

In a normal country, the President should be making a televised address that same day to the nation over such a serious attack. Making threats to the western supplies and organisers of Kiev, announcing some countermeasures- but he’s long given up the pretense of threatening the west ( nevermind look like he will). What has become implicitly accepted civilian deaths in liberated territories and border regions from Ukrainian attacks is now nonchalantly accepted as inevitable daily mass civilian deaths with 5-8 killed, dozens injured,deep in mainland Russia. No deterrence achieved against this vile regime, mainly because their western controllers have nothing to worry about.

The head of Wildberries, she made a speech that put the likes of Putin to shame in terms of bring upfront with people.

The successful Ukraine strikes are now so daily that a directive of “keep calm” to not spread panic is worthless

This is still in the aftermath of the terror attack in the Moscow restaurant where after 3 days there is still not a single piece of extra information on what happened and ( hopefully not) if General Chaiko was the target with his daughter seriously injured and her husband killed.

Dare I say it, but this indifference in public towards civilian deaths inside Russia deserves to have serious repercussions for Putin and Russian leadership. It’s like the modern day version of the western myth that Soviet generals were throwing around Red Army soldiers to be easily sacrificed- but this time with civilian deaths being treated as non events

And it looks particularly worse as the point you pose remains unanswered- liberation of Donbass won’t lead to the other objectives listed by Putin at the start of the military operation being fulfilled

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Yes, indeed: “the worthless image of Putin kicking a ball.”  Those were precisely my thoughts as I watched the opening minutes of Vesti news last night and saw Putin’s smiling face, his basking in the ecstatic greetings extended to him by youths in a vast auditorium for participants in a youth program intended to encourage and support their development into leading professionals of the next generation.

The broadcaster made no concession to the shocking tragedy that was reported later in the news bulletin about the 7 killed, 15 sent to hospital, some with very serious injuries and still more wounded from a Ukrainian drone attack on a popular family holiday resort on the Black Sea in the Krasnodar region. Normal guidance for heads of state in such situations is for them to fly down to the scene of the tragedy, to declare several days of mourning and to address the broad public on what has occurred and what will be done about it. Not to have done so was a self-damaging act by Vladimir Putin that his compatriots will not forgive or forget.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.

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3 thoughts on “Putin commits political suicide on the evening of the attack on a Black Sea beach in the Krasnodar region that killed seven, including children”

  1. Thank you Gilbert for this unexpected surprise.

    We are here to read you though- not my grammar free, zig-zagging and rushed to the point of one clumsy thumb movement away from being unintelligible screed!

    Odious he maybe,but Zelensky gives clear indication of his military-political, geopolitical strategy, even tactics. As do his legion of goons

    Putin gives out none of that , this “spirit of Anchorage guff” has shamed him to the point to claim he was deceived makes no meaningful sense and it should be no surprise that in this abstract painting of his, the well-known russophile commenteriat are at loggerheads with eachother

    If anything ,Zelensky’s vileness and incompetence is getting Putin off the hook with the Wildberries,restaurant,beach ,other terrorism he is rejoicing over and cheap stunts only diverting blame from Russians that would have been directed at Putin and the general staff ,onto Zelensky’s vile regime. Rather than continuing along the same route of attacking nighttime hydrocarbon infrastructure and military targets that would put pressure on Putins indecision and weakness, they have gone down this route

    Thanks again

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  2. Thank you for telling the truth even when it is not favourable to your preferred side in this war. This is why I read Gilbert Doctorow. Very few people can be trusted to make an honest analysis in good faith.

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  3. Am seriously beginning to think Putin, whom I have admired for over a decade, has lost his mojo. A Great Power, let alone a Superpower, can’t possibly allow itself to be punched at will by a lesser non-nuclear adversary, even if it is backed by over 35 countries. All good things come to end, I suppose, just as even great leaders reach their expiry date if they stay on the shelf too long.

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