The Kremlin partially shading its goals in Ukraine in order to mislead Western countries and force them to put Kyiv at the negotiating table. This was stated by experts of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a new report on the situation at the front.
Moscow seeks to make Kyiv ask for peace. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on November 21 stated that the change of current government in Ukraine is not the goal of the Russian “special military operation”. He emphasized that Russian President Vladimir Putin “already talked about this”, although Putin himself said directly opposite things.
Experts are confident that the Kremlin clouding of their goals is most likely designed for the Western audience, but at the same time, to Russian supporters of the war. One of the “military commissars” in response to Peskov’s statement sarcastically noted that Russia was waging a war without a clear purpose.
The Kremlin’s indecision in the issue of publicly committed by extreme ideology and the continuation of war also causes bewilderment among propagandists who preach such ideology to the Russian masses.
Vladimir Putin, American analysts say, seeks to balance between sharp nationalist theses to enlist the support of a nationalist community, and more moderate theses to maintain the support of the rest of the Russian population.
Russia’s military failures and the growing victims that the Russian president requires from Russians, make his intentional clouding of reason and attempts at rhetorical balancing more embossed, inciting discontent among critical groups of the population.