An expert analyst of the former Soviet Union wrote a Politico editorial on Thursday claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin may be considering an escalation in his ongoing invasion of Ukraine that involves the "use of biological, chemical or battlefield nuclear weapons."
The analyst, former NPR chief Moscow correspondent Lawrence Scott Sheets, came to the gloomy conclusion while watching the evening news broadcast "Vremya" on Russia's Channel One.
Sheets saw by watching the program and listening to a Wednesday speech by Putin that the country's propaganda consistently alleged that the West was using Ukraine to stockpile biological, chemical and potentially nuclear weapons for use against Russia.
He said that through his years working in and around the former Soviet Union, "Russian propaganda frequently asserts that an enemy is making moves that Russia itself intends to take."
It "has the effect domestically of shifting blame for such a step on the enemy instead of Russia," Sheets said.
The analyst further noted how some of the president's top advisers had vanished recently, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
"Not a single member of Russia's National Security Council was shown on the bank of TV monitors in whatever bunker Putin is holed up in. All of them seem to have either taken impromptu vacations — or simply been banished," Sheets said.
Regarding Shoigu, the analyst says he "has been absent for days."
"This may suggest that he is being set up to be a scapegoat, if and when Putin needs one," Sheets theorized.
Putin also may be "shifting the goal posts" on the scope of victory, according to Sheets.
Sheets noticed "there has been a renewed emphasis on the necessity of 'liberating' the coal mining area broadly known as the Donbas and protecting annexed Crimea," while the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has been "rarely mentioned."
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