World News: Putin’s Bloodthirsty Obsession
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Tuesday, 15 September 2026 09:15
- Written by Olivier Longhi
The multiplication of economic difficulties in Russia linked to the war in Ukraine lends credence to the need to end the conflict. However, for Putin, winning the war is more a personal obsession than a strategic necessity.
Regardless of the results of the parliamentary elections to be held on September 18 and 20 in Russia, Vladimir Putin, as the elected autocrat that he is, doesn't care. As Putin's war prohibits any hope of resolving the armed opposition just as he doesn't care about the effects of the war against Ukraine on the Russian population.
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Rising inflation, fuel shortages, failing armaments, low morale and a bogged down front would be, however, and for any leader reasons to question, at the very least, the relevance of the ongoing conflict. Except that Vladimir Putin is not an ordinary leader. He wants to embody an extraordinary politician, out of time and over whom nothing and no one has a hold. Thus, the war against Ukraine is not a trivial war, a simple border conflict, it is his war.
In fact, without the slightest scruple, like the tsars or the first secretaries of the Communist Party who preceded him, Vladimir Putin has made the Russian people the tool, more than the actor, of this war that he has transformed into a personal conflict.
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Omnipotence
Using the threat to Europe to ensure relative tranquility, by provoking NATO in order to test its ability to react, which is nil for the moment because it is still under the yoke of North American omnipotence, Putin knows how to have a free hand on the Ukrainian question, even if the signs of defection, quickly stifled, or the economic difficulties, evaded, multiply, Vladimir Putin wants to win, whatever the cost.
Like his predecessors, Putin will not hesitate to sacrifice Russia and the Russians as long as the hoped-for result, a clear victory, is not recorded. Far from imagining a defeat, while the conflict is moving more towards a status quo capable of reviving hostilities in the more or less long term, Vladimir Putin would tend to defy reality, even if it means denying it in view of the multiplication of Ukrainian drone incursions on his territory.
The question that now arises is no longer whether Vladimir Putin will accept a peace treaty, but what the content of the said treaty will be. Will Crimea, annexed since 2014, remain Russian?
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Price Per Barrel
Will the Donbass, partly conquered on Ukrainian territory, regain its sovereignty? Will the Russian-speaking populations bordering Russia be inclined to potentially return to the Ukrainian fold? So many questions and so many more, at a time when the price of a barrel of oil is soaring without Moscow deriving any particular advantage from it in view of the sanctions that Russia is undergoing, which is being asked acutely and that Putin is also asking.
Because the Kremlin strongman knows that his demands will never be accepted by Kiev as long as Volodymyr Zelensky is in power, just as Putin knows that Donald Trump, an objective ally, more interested in soaring oil prices than in the future of the Ukrainian people, will have to leave the White House. Between stubbornness and time pressing, Putin ultimately has little margin to get out of the conflict and almost none if he persists in wanting to win it at all costs.
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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.
