To celebrate a nonexistent triumph by the Russian army in Ukraine, the former Italian soldier relies on the tale of proRussian conspiracy theorist Jacques Baud
“The Russian military columns advanced according to plan. The goal is not to capture the capital, but to control the East. Moscow aims to root out the nationalist military gangs that have a strong presence in the Ukrainian army.” It looks like a Kremlin bulletin and is instead the description of the course of the war that he proposed in the daily newspaper General Fabio Minione of the most understanding commentators on the reasons for Wladimir Putin and critics of Ukraine’s behavior. All analyzes by specialists, western secret services and field observers they describe a major failure of the Russian President’s strategy and point to the obvious logistical and organizational limitations of the army, which was decimated by very heavy casualties (including several generals), but According to Mini, it is just a “narrative provided by Ukraine but orchestrated and prepared from the outside”.
The truth, argues the former army general, is that Putin’s march in Ukraine is a triumph: Russian forces have advanced wherever Ukrainian resistance was weak, leaving the cities for later and encircling Ukrainian troops to the south. “The ‘slowdown’ that our ‘experts’ attribute to poor logistics is only the result of the target being met.” But the capture of Kyiv? What about the overthrow of President Zelenskyy? According to Mini, these were never Putin’s goals: “It is crucial he writes the idea that Russia tried to take over the capital Kyiv in order to eliminate Zelenskyy.” And again he says, citing a report: “Vladimir Putin never wanted to overthrow or overthrow Zelensky. In fact, Russia is trying to keep him in power by urging him to negotiate by surrounding Kyiv.
These are simply ridiculous claims, which the Kremlin spokesman probably also means Dmitry Peskov he would have some embarrassment to say, if only because it began the day after the invasion it was Putin who ordered the Ukrainian army to stage a coup to eliminate Zelenskyy: “Take the power into your own hands. It will be easier for us to deal with you than with this gang of drug addicts and neoNazis who have settled in Kyiv and have taken the entire Ukrainian people hostage. That’s not exactly the message said to keep a president in power while he invades his country.
Mini’s is an obviously false reconstruction due to ignorance or malice, and what is more worrying for a former army corps general who played a major role in NATO is unknown. Mini cites a proPersian conspiracy theorist as the source of his claims. In fact, the former Italian soldier’s comment is based almost entirely on a French thinktank report authored by Jacques Baud, a former Swiss intelligence colonel. The problem is, that Baud is a wellknown mystifier and manipulator who has been spreading conspiracy theories and proPutin narratives for some time. In short, a kind of Marcello Foa or Giulietto Swiss Church. He has just published a book called Poutine: Maître du jeu?, in which he essentially indicts the West and Ukraine and acquits Putin, who was involuntarily forced to invade Ukraine. Jacques Baud has long been committed to dissemination, including through channels linked to the Kremlin such as Russia today France and Sputnik Francesurreal theories that have in common that they are proRussian.
That’s what Baud claims, for example it wasn’t the Kremlin that killed Litvinenko with poloniumhow it has nothing to do with the poisoning of former Russian secret agent Skripal and his daughter. The same applies to the dissident case Alexei Navalnyabout which he wrote a derogatory book (“L’Affaire Navalny: Le complotisme au service de la politique étrangère”), according to Baud it wasn’t poisoned at all. The former Swiss military, used by Mini as a trusted source, is also the author of another book Acquittal of Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenka in the Ryanair plane hijacking case on May 23, 2021, when a military fighter, under the pretext of a false bomb alarm, landed the plane in Belarus and subsequently arrested the opposition figure Roman Protasevic and his girlfriend. “The actions of Belarus in the case of flight FR4978 complied with the norms of international law,” writes Baud in the book The Hijacking of Ryanair Flight FR4978 Lying in the Name of Truth.
The French site Conspiracy Watch, which is busy debunking conspiracy theories, calls it a “Wrong Multiplier” for the claims contained in another book where Baud argues this in Darfur there were only 2,500 victims (100 times less than the calculated number) e denies Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria. In short, to celebrate Putin’s successes, General Mini relies on the untruths of a maxiPutinian.
Grew up in Irpinia, in Savignano. Studies in Milan, Catholic University. Freelancer by training, journalist by deformation. Al Foglio first as a reader, then as a collaborator, and finally as editor. I deal mainly with economics, but also with politics, inquiries, culture, diverse and possible
