I don’t know if there are any conspiracy theorists among my worldwide readership, but if there are they’d do well to read what follows. Because although what follows could easily be a half-arsed conspiracy theory conjured up by yours truly, it’s not that bonkers. Here goes then: sometime this week Vladimir Putin is going to do something utterly reckless and so escalate his war in Ukraine.
On Wednesday 24th August, it’s Ukraine Independence Day, absolutely the last thing Putin will celebrate because independence for Ukraine is the exact opposite outcome to which he desires. Then add to the pot Wednesday representing six years since Russia invaded Ukraine. But there’s more. Perhaps by coincidence – but who knows? – Darya Dugina, daughter of key Putin ally Alexander Dugin was murdered at the weekend by persons unknown, at least to us. Could Russia attribute blame to Ukraine and use lethal force to bring about Putin’s main aim?
Clearly, President Zelensky is concerned and told Ukrainians to be ‘vigilant’ ahead of Independence Day celebrations. He said: “Russia could try to do something particularly disgusting, particularly cruel. One of the key objectives of the enemy is to humiliate us. We have to be strong enough to resist all provocation”.
Could Zelensky be thinking about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine, currently held by Russian soldiers. Fighting has resumed near the site. Some fear a disaster that would make Chernobyl look like a minor blip. Putin’s invasion has been stalled for months. Could that something “particularly disgusting, particularly cruel” come by way of the destruction of a nuclear power station? Or could the Russian fleet in the Black Sea launch a sustained indiscriminate attack on Ukraine? We don’t know any of this, which is why imaginations run wild; even for those of us who hold no truck with conspiracy theories.
My fears have been stoked by my latest reading material of choice, Bill Browder’s Red Notice and Freezing Order, Catherine Belton’s Putin’s People and Luke Harding’s Shadow State. To say I have been shocked by the lengths Putin has gone to in order to silence people, often by killing them, would be a wild understatement. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine came as no surprise to those of us who have followed events in Russia since the death of the USSR and having read the books, I have long concluded that the country is capable of almost anything, right up to and including a nuclear attack, in this instance the destruction of a nuclear power station.
I am not suggesting we start digging that nuclear shelter for Wednesday 24th August, or cancel plans for the coming weekend, but it’s best not to rule anything out. If you think Putin wouldn’t go that far, you underestimate the man. Seemingly there are no depths to which he won’t sink.
