Sen. Marco Rubio: "Expect Unexpected Inside Russia...We Won't See It Coming"

Sen. Marco Rubio made an unusual comment about Russia yesterday on Fox Business Channel.

When asked, "If the free world could do anything more to stop Vladimir Putin at this point," his response was noteworthy---Particularly in that Rubio sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee where he would have access to information not available to most others.

Be informed, not misled.

Rubio said, “Well, I think the free world is doing a lot more than I thought it was going to do. I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the rallying we've seen all throughout Europe. And other countries now have joined - Korea, Japan - in imposing these crippling sanctions.”

“The Russian economy is in total free-fall and I would tell you: I would expect the unexpected inside of Russia,” Rubio said, predicting that any internal reaction will be swift, dramatic, and unforeseeable.

Then he said this: "These things move very quickly. We're never going to see it coming if something is happening internally. But, they’re going to be in a really, really difficult place a week from now, when you look at the impact this is having on their economy.”

He noted that "CEOs and workers are abandoning Rusia, taking their talents with them, rendering Putin's war unaffordable."

The senator also said that anyone who can get out of Russia---CEO or worker---is getting out right now.

Then Rubio said this:

“There are all kinds of CEOs who are abandoning the country. Virtually everyone who can get out, whether it's a CEO or worker, everyone who can get out of Russia is getting out right now. And, the combination of that brain drain and the capital that they're taking with them — I don’t know if you saw Putin is banning anyone leaving with more than $10,000 — the impact on their economy is devastating.

“So, that’s going to begin to have an impact here because, as we well know in this country, these kinds of wars, like what he is doing now, it costs money. And, he's not going to be able to afford it.”

What's going on behind the world stage?

The New York Times says a Western intelligence service collected information before the invasion of Ukraine that Russia and China had agreed that Russia would wait until after the Olympic Games in China to attack Ukraine.

The Times says the intelligence service is considered credible by US authorities. 

The Olympics ended on Feb. 20 and Russian President Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Putin and Xi Jinping met on Feb 4, but no one knows for sure if they discussed the invasion of Ukraine in that meeting.

A Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington DC told the Times, "These claims are speculation without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China."

The Daily Caller News is also asking questions about Putin regarding his health and well-being in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

They, too, are quoting Sen. Marco Rubio---A tweet he posted on Feb. 25: "I wish I could share more, but for now I can say it's pretty obvious to many something is off with #Putin."

I wish I could share more,but for now I can say it’s pretty obvious to many that something is off with #Putin

He has always been a killer,but his problem now is different & significant

It would be a mistake to assume this Putin would react the same way he would have 5 years ago

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 26, 2022

Reuters News Service reported this:

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Putin in early February, telling sources that he was struck at how different the Russian president was compared to when he met him during the summer of 2021, according to Reuters.

“[Putin] gave [Macron] five hours of historical revisionism,” said the source, who further described how Putin believes that the West had broken commitments to Russia since the late 1990s, including the growth of NATO to include former Soviet Union states, Reuters reported.

“So he goes on for hours rewriting history from 1997 on. He drowns you in these long monologues,” said the source, noting that Macron kept trying to go back to the issue of that present moment: whether Putin was going to invade Ukraine. Russia had amassed more than 100,000 troops along the border around that time. Reuters described Putin’s behavior as “hawkish” and reported that Putin feels the 2019 election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a coup and that Zelenskyy is controlled by the U.S.

Our CIA has employed psychiatrists to analyze the mental stability of America's adversaries. In their evaluations, they said, "I've thought for some time that Putin was becoming untethered from reality."

Fiona Hill, with our US Security Council, told Politico, "Sadly, we are treading back through old historic patterns that we said we would never permit to happen again. Putin is increasingly operating emotionally."

Then she said this: 

There’s lots of danger ahead. Putin is increasingly operating emotionally and likely to use all the weapons at his disposal, including nuclear ones. It’s important not to have any illusions — but equally important not to lose hope.

“Every time you think, ’No, he wouldn’t, would he?’ Well, yes, he would,  And he wants us to know that, of course. It’s not that we should be intimidated and scared…. We have to prepare for those contingencies and figure out what is it that we’re going to do to head them off.

The National Review said yesterday, "The casual speculation about Vladimir Putin’s mental state has become more serious."

It's an insightful article that concludes with a quote from the "Guardian."

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in Western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads. . . .

Following Putin’s speech on Monday, an Elysée official made an unusually bold assessment that the speech was “paranoid”. Bernard Guetta, a member of the European parliament for Macron’s grouping, told France Inter radio on Thursday morning after the military invasion began: “I think this man is losing his sense of reality, to say it politely.” Asked by the interviewer if that meant he thought Putin had gone mad, he said “yes”.

Guetta is not alone. Milos Zeman, the Czech president and long one of [Vladimir] Putin’s staunchest supporters, denounced Putin [as] a “madman” after the invasion.

“All our Russia-watchers, watching his press conferences, think that he’s descending even more into a despotic mindset,” another European diplomat said.

People grow old. They acquire ailments. Their perception of reality changes. The prospect of mortality affects different people differently. Most people don’t hold complete power over a vast nation while hearing only affirmative feedback from those around them. This is a dangerous way to age.

Takeaway

I don't doubt that Putin is experiencing cognitive failure, but I also believe he is obsessed with power.

Every dictator is.

George Orwell wrote, "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

There's a lot of propaganda being spread regarding the Ukraine invasion. Be careful.

Adolf Hitler said, "By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise." 

Yesterday in Taiwan, newspaper headlines wonder anxiously, "Ukraine today, Taiwan Tomorrow?"

What happens next is, in part, dependent on whether America can show the leadership the world has come to expect from the United  States. 

I'll be talking more about this on the radio today. No question, we are in an era of deception.

Remember Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.