From Kherson to Khartoum, Putin Greets Spring With Fiendish Fervor

Who did Vladimir Putin think he was fooling? The Russian strongman worked the pious look by holding a candle and making the sign of the cross in a Moscow church for Russian Orthodox Easter alongside the hoary Patriarch Krill, who calls Ukraine “little Russia.” It was a show for the cameras bookmarked on one side by the Russian Pacific fleet’s snap drills and on the other by a brazen visit to Russian forces in the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Ukraine on Monday. The long arm of the Russian president was also on display in a backstage kind of way at Khartoum, the Sudanese capital that is presently up in flames.One wonders what the jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, would have made of Mr. Putin’s hypocritical display — one tailor-made for domestic Russian consumption — but it is doubtful his prison cell has a television. The same is likely true for Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition figure who on Monday was sentenced to 25 years in prison simply for criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There is no doubt that Mr. Putin’s foray into Ukraine, however fleeting, will inflame Kyiv as the war lurches into its 14th month and international pressure grows for a widely anticipated counteroffensive. A video the Kremlin released showed Mr. Putin arriving by helicopter at a Russian command post in southern Kherson, where he received operational updates on airborne forces and on the situations in both Kherson and occupied Zaporizhia. He wished the troops a happy Easter before continuing to the headquarters of the Vostok National Guard in Luhansk, another of the four regions Russia annexed illegally last September. The Moscow Times reported that the footage showed Mr. Putin wearing different clothes in the second location, but it was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the video footage. However, last month Mr. Putin made a surprise visit to Mariupol, the Ukrainian city that Russian forces largely decimated last year before finally capturing it. Ukrainian forces successfully captured the southern city of Kherson last November, but after the Russian retreat some forces remained in the area. They have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from the city of Kherson itself as they gird for Ukraine’s expected counterstrikes.Despite apocryphal reports of Mr. Putin’s health problems, including some that surfaced from a trove of recently leaked Pentagon intelligence documents, the Russian president walked with an almost unnerving swagger as he headed to what looked like an improvised briefing room, flanked by senior officers. While the exact location was not disclosed, it would be difficult to imagine that the Ukrainian authorities or Western intelligence services would not be aware of such a high-profile arrival. Yet the visit came at the same time that the British ministry of defense reported that Russia was “re-energizing” its assault on the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. The adjoining twin separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are the scenes of the heaviest fighting in Ukraine right now.Mr. Putin apparently found room in his luggage for a gilt Orthodox Christian icon, which he presented to senior officers. According to the Kremlin, the icon was a copy; its gold appearance raised the faint but discernible specter of Russia’s role in the violent spasms now rocking Sudan, the world’s biggest supplier of gold after Communist China, and a country with a major presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group. According to documents shared with the Associated Press, Wagner forces started operating in Sudan in 2017 by providing military training to intelligence and special forces and to the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. In exchange for protection of top officials, Sudanese military leaders essentially handed over control of the country’s gold mines to the Wagner group. That is less about making pretty icons and jewelry than helping Russia dodge sanctions and pay for the war in Ukraine. Crates of gold disguised by cookies started shipping out of Sudan just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, as CNN first reported. Not only has the Wagner group, which is privately run but still under the aegis of the Kremlin, used its base in Sudan near the border with the Central African Republic to stir up trouble elsewhere in Africa, but it helped to precipitate the current power struggle in Sudan. It is one that pits a powerful general, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF, against the head of Sudan’s ruling council, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan. Mr. Dagalo is also known as Hemedti, or “little Mohammed,” and earlier was a fighter in the feared Sudanese Arab Janjaweed militia, which came to international attention because of its link to atrocities in the Darfur conflict. Now each general is commanding tens of thousands of troops at the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, with violent clashes spreading beyond the capital. Since Saturday, more than 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded in fighting. Both sides are so far unwilling to accept a truce.On Tuesday, Secretary Blinken told reporters that an American embassy convoy came under fire at Khartoum. Everyone in the convoy of vehicles, which were clearly marked, was reported as safe. The AP reported that the assailants were linked to the Rapid Support Forces now vying for control of the military and the country. The timing of the chaos in Sudan may have been unpredictable, but there is no doubt that the pressure has been building for a long time, particularly following a military coup in October 2021. Yet with their firm footprint and Kremlin-backed connivances, the Wagner mercenaries, insofar as they have any strategy besides plunder, may be trying to put out a fire with gasoline. President Putin’s is one hell of a church.

From Kherson to Khartoum, Putin Greets Spring With Fiendish Fervor

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