Monday Mayhem – Putin Goes Nuclear, Japan Slows Down, China Falters

Well, well, well.  

Those scruffy little Ukrainians have been holding off Russia this weekend – even though they are outgunned and outmanned about 10:1.  That has caused Lord Vladimort to ready the nukes   Citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.

Like Trump, I thought Putin was a smart guy but he’s not been playing this smart.  He could have easily taken over the diputed territiories in the Eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk), where the separtatists already have control but instead they attacked the whole country, blowing his “I was just trying to help” narrative out the window and causing the collateral deaths of thousands of civilians, which is a war crime – but one the US commits all the time, so no one is making a big deal about that.  

What Putin is actually doing is undoing the damage Trump did by re-uniting Nato and re-establishing the US, UK and Germany as the go-to team in a crisis – even though Boris Johnson is still in office – that’s quite an accomplishment!  When people start looking to Boris Johnson for steady leadership in a crisis – you know things are getting weird.  BoJo (as he is called by the cool kids) has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he is putting Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent on high alert as a “distraction” from struggle his troops are facing in Ukraine.

Not only has Putin perhaps overplayed a weak hand but now he’s actually gotten the West to move on to strict banking sanctions.  Russian banks are being cut from the SWIFT System, which is how money is transferred internationally.  Roughly 1% of SWIFT traffic goes through Russia and that action alone dropped the Ruble 30% this weekend and the Russian markets are shut down today as their entire financial system is now in chaos.  

Putin might be able to get on the alternate Chinese system but his bombing of civilian targets may cause China to say…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.