Chris Lange, FISM News

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Vladimir Putin received accolades from his subordinates and prayers for his continued health on his 70th birthday Friday as the Russian leader shows signs of increased isolation, paranoia, and desperation in the midst of a crisis of his own making. 

What began in February as a “special military operation” in Ukraine intended to last only weeks has become a drawn-out, bloody conflict now stretching toward its eight-month mark amid a string of humiliating defeats for the Russian leader. Putin, who often credited himself for maintaining peace and stability in the ‘Fatherland’ throughout his 22-year reign, is now a global pariah condemned for brutal war crimes. 

He has sent countless numbers of his own soldiers to their deaths while hundreds of thousands of fighting-age men have fled Russia’s borders into neighboring countries to avoid a new draft. Anti-war protests throughout Russia persist, despite the Kremlin’s violent crackdown on dissent, while members of Putin’s own cabinet have voiced frustration and growing doubt about his leadership. These setbacks, coupled with Ukraine’s stunning new counteroffensive and near-daily liberation of swathes of occupied territories have left Putin with few options as he doubles down on his threats to use nuclear weapons.

“This is really a hard moment for him, but he can’t accuse anyone else. He did it himself. And he is going straight ahead to big, big problems” Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, told the Associated Press 

Mikhail Zygar, a journalist who has close contacts with several members of the Kremlin elite, said both the public and Putin’s close associates were blindsided by the Feb. 24 invasion.

“All of them are in shock,” Zygar said. “None of them wanted to see the developments unfold in such a way just because they are going to lose everything. Now they are all stained by blood, and they all understand they have nowhere to run.”

Kolesnikov described Putin’s nuclear threats as a reflection of growing desperation.

“This is the last step for him in a sense that this is a suicidal” move, Kolesnikov said. “If he’s ready for the step, it means that we are witnessing a dictator who is even worse than Stalin.”

Biden: Putin ‘not joking’ about using nukes

President Biden said that the Kremlin leader was “not joking” in his threats to use nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a fundraiser in New York on Thursday, the president said that “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered to be the closest the world has been to a nuclear war, when in 1962 U.S. intelligence discovered that Russia was secretly storing nuclear warheads in Cuba. The discovery launched a tense 13-day standoff between the two world powers.

“We’ve got a guy I know fairly well. He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden continued, noting, like many others, that Putin has backed himself into a corner.

“I’m trying to figure out, what is Putin’s off-ramp? … Where does he find a way out?” Biden said. “Where does he find himself in a position that he does not – not only lose face, but lose significant power within Russia?”

Biden’s comments marked perhaps the starkest yet from the administration in reference to tensions with the Russian leader. 

Russia holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and has used veiled threats over the last several months to try to keep the West at bay in their support of Ukraine. This week’s illegal annexation of Ukraine territories has further heightened fears that the Kremlin’s threats could become reality, as Russian officials have noted that any attacks on these regions would be an attack on Russia itself.

More than 500 Ukrainians found 

Meanwhile, in a now all too familiar scenario, police say they have discovered another mass grave in a newly liberated area near Kharkiv. Officials said they found evidence of torture and executions in their grim discovery of 534 dead civilians. Among the dead were 226 women and 19 children, according to The New York Times.

Russia continues to deny that they are targeting Ukraine civilians, despite the undeniable mounting evidence to the contrary.