Delft Blue

Knowing now how  to color my captures in blue, I couldn't resist painting this one of the city's old townhall in Delft Blue too. 

On the other hand, thinking of the perpetuality here in Delft and of the brutal destructions done in Ukraine by the Russian forces now for 1½ years, I cannot but feel anger for Putin and his policy. 

Yestereve, half expected news arrived from Russia and today the papers say amongst others, as followed down here: 

Prigozhin may be dead, but Putin may soon regret his legacy
The fact that Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash two months after his uprising against President Putin may not come as a big surprise to many. But the death of the 62-year-old Wagner boss does have consequences, according to foreign commentators.

Iñaki Oñorbe Genovesi 24 August 2023, 13:48

Much is still unclear about the cause of the crash of the plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin near Valdai. Mechanical problems? An attack by one of his many enemies? Putin's 'inevitable revenge'? Maybe we'll never quite know. What is striking about Prigozhin's sudden end is that it lacks "the ambiguity that normally accompanies the elimination of those who clash with Putin," Russian-American columnist Max Boot wrote in The Washington Post.

Commentators often refer to the “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome,” in which senior Russian officials and businessmen mysteriously fall out of windows, commit “suicide,” or simply die for no reason. A trend that has only increased since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. But when it comes to Prigozhin, there can be little doubt about what happened: he was almost certainly executed, just as surely as if he had been shot by a firing squad in Red Square. That's how you hold on to power when you rule a gangster state."

According to Boot, Prigozhin's death proves that Putin has maintained his stranglehold on power. “Putin seems as strong as ever, despite his failed invasion of Ukraine.” (…) “No opposition is emerging, not even from Putin's inner circle. That means Putin can continue to wage this vicious war of aggression as long as his ammunition supply stays up – and no doubt he will, hoping that former President Donald Trump or some other Republican critic of Ukraine will win the US election and save Kyiv from further aid. will cut off.'

Stephen Fortescue, professor of Russian studies at the University of New South Wales, doubts anyone will be surprised at Prigozhin's fate. “Of course it is Putin who cleans the house. He sends a clear message to his elites. And that message is not new," Fortescue said in the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald. How far will the purge go? Putin will temper his revenge to restore stability. But all his outbursts of "excitement" pile up. At some point things may come crashing down in the Kremlin, but it doesn't feel that way yet, even though there are signs of tension.”

However, Canadian political scientist Loïc Tassé believes that Prigozhin's sudden death will further isolate Putin. "This event only solidifies Putin's image as a bloodthirsty dictator," Tassé writes in an op-ed for the Canadian newspaper Le Journal de Montréal. Putin was already one of the rare leaders who has blood on his hands. Prigozhin's death will make even other dictators increasingly reluctant to meet him."

According to journalist Pyotr Sauer, Prigozhin's death will certainly also increase tensions within the Russian army. Although his rebellion was largely condemned by the armed forces, he remained a popular figure among some elements of the force who sympathized with his criticism of the Russian military establishment and the faltering war. To underline his words, in his article he quotes Sergei Markov, a popular blogger and former Kremlin adviser: “We should kill our enemies, not our own people. All our enemies celebrate… The death of Prigozhin is Ukraine's greatest achievement this year.”

Pavel Luzin, an expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis, an American think tank, told Reuters that Prigozhin's death once again showed "that the Russian elite is not united, the contradictions within the Kremlin are growing, that coordination between different branches within the Russian leadership is really bad'. If Vladimir Putin is so powerful, Luzin wonders aloud, "why didn't he finally arrest Prigozhin?"

But the main question now is: how will things go on with Wagner? According to Michael Rubin, affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute and regular author at 19fortyfive, an opinion platform on defense, national security, foreign policy and politics, there are three scenarios that could determine the future of Wagner and Russia.

The first scenario is that Wagner's allegiance shifts to Putin. “It has long been thought that Prigozhin was more the figurehead and investor than the real boss of the mercenary army. If Wagner's leadership lies elsewhere, it may not be difficult to accept that Wagner's men will become loyal to Putin," Rubin writes at 19fortyfive. Or as the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden once joked, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally like the strong horse.”

Rubin's second scenario is that Wagner ceases to exist. But that seems less likely, he says: “Wagner is a lucrative business. It has taken over the Central African Republic's gold mines and could soon take control of Niger's uranium mines. Wagner also gives Putin the chance to do some of the dirty work he wants done.”

According to Rubin, the third scenario is the most dangerous for Putin. Prigozhin was not the only one who revolted in June. Hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner veterans may feel they have no choice but to take up arms and exact revenge on the man who almost certainly ordered their boss's death.”

(…) “If Wagner goes down this road, it will slowly erode the foundation of Russian stability and give the country a taste of civil-war Lebanon. Certainly, if Putin's henchmen start dropping like flies, the image of invincibility surrounding the Russian leader will fade. The strong horse could become a lame pony.”

But whatever scenario it ends up being, Rubin is firm in his conclusion: "Prigozhin may be dead, but Putin may soon regret his legacy."