Former Commander of US Army General Ben Hodges admitted that Putin’s successor will be “much worse.” This is what I have warned, as Putin is surprisingly a middle-of-the-road leader compared to others. Hodges believes that the Russian government is already split on the Ukraine war, as many have personally faced sanctions and monetary losses. People think that the war can end by simply removing Putin, but this is simply not true.
“Alexander Dugin (Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher) openly says that Putin needs to be killed,” Hodges said. “We see the North Caucasus and (Chechen leader Ramzan) Kadyrov, who is anticipating Russia’s possible collapse and is trying to protect himself somehow. I absolutely don’t call for regime change in Russia – this is the choice for the Russian people to make, but we must understand that whoever comes after Putin will be much worse.”
The West began discussing reparation payments from Russia months ago. Consequently, losing the war could mean losing Russia. More than just the Donbas area is on the line as we have seen nations and empires divided after wars countless times. Hodges believes a Russian loss would lead to a complete disintegration of the Russian state.
“Under a Russia break-up scenario, you could have a lot of new nuclear-armed states that were divided amongst one another on ethnic lines,” he said. “That raises fears about conflict, spill-over and escalation and nationalism. How do you manage those nuclear weapons? How do you prevent a sort of statelet from going rogue?” This would only lead to growing civil unrest and wars among newly created states. History will never surprise us — it always repeats.
Removing Putin will not end the war. There are men waiting in line behind Putin who would rather nuke us all into oblivion before watching their nation dissolve. This is why I say that the West must abandon Ukraine and urge peace. Ukraine could not defeat Russia without Western aid, and Russia could not be controlled without the checks and balances of the West. The politicians do not understand that there will be no winner in this war.
