Is Putin really crazy?, asks Sergei Jirnov on the cover of his new titled book Climbing. According to him, to ask the question is to answer it. The international community should also be concerned and take seriously the deadly intentions of the master of the Kremlin, who regularly threatens to use nuclear weapons since the start of his “special operation” in Ukraine. It is, in any case, the leitmotif hammered out in the pages of the essay by Jirnov, a former KGB spy who took refuge in France.
Born in Moscow, Jirnov is now a journalist and expert on Russia. Already, in his previous work, The gear (Albin Michel), he returned to the rise to power of Vladimir Putin to the highest steps of the State of the Russian Federation. The 62-year-old author has also met Putin four times and does not hide the low esteem he has for the president, whom he describes as a “sociopath” and even a “small strike” unfit for the supreme office. . The war in Ukraine ended up making him an outcast, an isolated and paranoid war criminal who plays Doctor Strangelove, in reference to the famous character from Stanley Kubrick’s film, believes the author. But beyond the delusions of a dictator who seems more than ever disconnected from reality, Jirnov deciphers the backward-looking and obsolete political system of his native country, the great heir of the Soviet Union which itself has spawned a host of leaders. despotic.
While the conflict in Ukraine has been bogged down for more than a year, the book sheds light on the debacle of Russian troops who have only managed to maintain, for months, an anachronistic trench warfare in the east of the country. The reasons are multiple and complex, says Jirnov, who points, among other things, to an ill-equipped army and the bad decisions of the president and his entourage which compensate for the structural dysfunctions of Russia with an over-armament of the nuclear arsenal.
What might seem like good news, the victory of kyiv against Moscow, however, opens up uncertain prospects for the stability of the world, warns the author. Because a Russian defeat could ultimately cause the Tsar to press the red button in order to save face. He recalls that the new Russian nuclear doctrine unveiled in 2010 suggests the use of atomic weapons in the event of existential threats, pointing out in passing the ambiguity of the formula.
Jirnov thinks the use of the tactical nuke is more likely. Although it is less powerful, its use could have catastrophic repercussions by creating a doomsday gear. And to those who do not believe in such a scenario, the ex-agent reminds us that very few people had envisaged the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. With Putin, any eventuality is now possible and Westerners must now prepare for the worst.