Russia takes its turn at being unbelievably dumb — Snake Island public relations fiasco

© 2022 Peter Free

 

30 June 2022

 

 

Stupidity kills

 

Walk with me.

 

First, Russia's military left Ukraine's essentially indefensible and strategically worthless Snake Island.

 

Second and afterward, it tried to (falsely) sell that arguably intelligent strategic move as being, instead, a goodwill effort to make Ukrainian wheat delivery to the world easier:

 

 

Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing that its forces left the island "as a gesture of goodwill."

 

He added that "the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation finished fulfilling the assigned tasks in Snake Island and withdrew the garrison that had been operating there."

 

Konashenkov intimated that the removal of Russian troops should allow an easing for the passage of grain, "this solution will prevent Kyiv from speculating on an impending grocery crisis citing the inability to export grain due to total control of the northwestern part of the Black Sea by Russia."

 

© 2022 Olga Voitovych, Anna Chernova and Tim Lister, Russian forces have withdrawn from Snake Island. But both sides give different accounts, CNN (30 June 2022)

 

 

Those of us with functioning brains said — huh?

 

First, Snake Island had nothing to do with wheat deliveries.

 

Instead, Ukrainian Odesa's mined harbor situation (arguably) had the most to do with the shipborne component of the reduced food flow.

 

And in that context, you may recall that Russia had asked Ukraine to de-mine Odesa's harbor, so that ships could float in and out.

 

Ukraine, understandably, refused.

 

After all, why would Ukraine agree to disarm itself in Odesa's harbor and beyond, when Russia had already made it reasonably clear that the Federation intends to take the city permanently away from Ukraine.

 

Ergo, as a result of the (mine versus de-mine) impasse, the world witnessed reportedly impaired grain transit.

 

 

Now, here's the nonsensical part

 

By saying what they did about the Snake Island goodwill gesture, the Russian military made it appear that they had, indeed, been interfering with food flow.

 

In pridefully wanting to cover up a minor — but genuine — tactical weakness, the Russian military implicitly pled guilty to the West's more hugely motivating counter-charge about the (allegedly) Evil Federation trying to starve the world to death.

 

 

The moral? — As a result of Russia's braindead Snake Island messaging, more people will die

 

This is because Ukraine and the West will feel affirmed in their suspicion that Russia was (and is) interfering with Ukrainian food deliveries to the world.

 

And that impression will serve to justify the West's actual plot to bleed Russia with soon-to-be dead Ukrainians.

 

In sum, this botched Russian messaging is an unforced moral and strategic error of the worst kind.

 

I find it almost unbelievable that Russia has literally genius communicators like Putin, Lavrov and Zakharova — yet it permits imbecilic components of its Ministry of Defense to say the dumbest and most harmfully self-destructive of things.

 

Talk about ineptly blasting one's own head off.

 

Russia could learn a great deal about effective messaging, under challenging conditions, from China.

 

Stupidity kills, whichever side it is on.