Now Putin has to listen to lectures from the President of TAJIKISTAN who berates Russian leader

Vladimir Putin was given a stern dressing down by the president of Tajikistan in another indication that the Russian dictator has lost respect and influence in his own backyard.

Fellow long-standing dictator Emomali Rahmon, ruler of the 9 million Central Asian state since 1994, took advantage of Putin’s woes at home and in Ukraine to reassure him and tell him how he really feels at a summit in the Ukraine. Kazakh capital of Astana.

A gloomy and awkward-looking Putin slumped back in his chair and took the seven-minute diatribe as a host of Central Asian leaders and officials at the Commonwealth Of Independent States Summit (CIS) watched.

“Yes, we are small nations, we are not 100-200 million, but we have history, culture, we love, we want to be respected.” said Rahmon in a fiery outburst.

‘We don’t need anything; just to be respected.’

The humiliation was witnessed by the rulers of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“Why do we have to beg (Russia to attend) in a miserable forum in Tajikistan?” Rahmon demanded of Putin, jabbing his finger and making outstretched gestures.

“I have given instructions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I have even spoken to you to ask (Russia) to be present at least at the ministerial level. No, at the level of secretaries of state. Is this what Tajikistan deserves, a strategic partner?’

It is not the first time Putin’s so-called friends and partners in Asia have publicly turned on him since his debacle in Ukraine as they feel weakness and smell blood.

At a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan last month, Chinese Prime Minister Xi Xinping ignored dinner with Putin, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Putin in front of the media that “now is not the time for war.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also humiliated the Russian warmonger by making him wait half a minute in front of rolling cameras before coming out to greet him ahead of talks.

In the rambunctious and unwritten diatribe, the Tajik dictator nearly predicted Putin’s demise and accused his Russian counterpart of making the same mistakes that led to the Soviet Union’s demise last century.

He also complained that Russian businessmen entered the country and enriched themselves by extracting Tajikistan’s natural resources, while refusing to invest in the country.

“We don’t want your money, we want to be respected as we deserve. We host your military bases, we do whatever you ask, we really try to be what you pretend to be to us ‘strategic partners’.

But we are never treated as strategic partners! No offense, but we want to be respected!’

While Putin has continued to try to paint a strong picture externally of everything going according to plan, the fact that his former clients and vassals of small, impoverished dictatorships are turning against him — as well as big, important countries like India and China — tells his own story. story .

Putin has been severely weakened by the disastrous course of his senseless war in Ukraine since last month, when Ukraine launched autumn offensives to liberate occupied territory.

His announcement of partial mobilization and rapid annexation of the Ukrainian territory his army has managed to occupy is seen as desperate signs of weakness rather than strength.

Its prestige was dealt another blow when Ukraine managed to hit the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland with what is currently considered a truck bomb.

And his heartless bombardment of Ukrainian cities with long-range missiles – which have done nothing to affect strategic position – were similarly seen as symptoms of his impotence.

Putin recently announced that Russia does not need to unleash massive new attacks on Ukraine at this time, amid speculation that Moscow’s stockpiles of precision weapons may be running out.

And he also said the “partial mobilization” he announced last month, which the defense secretary said aimed at recruiting 300,000 soldiers, was coming to an end and would be over in two weeks.

“Nothing extra is planned. No proposals have been received from the Defense Ministry and I see no additional need in the near future,” Putin said of his continued mobilization.

‘Now 222,000 of the 300,000 people have been mobilized. All mobilization activities will be completed within approximately two weeks.’

But the battlefield prospects for Putin remain bleak, with Ukraine taking the initiative amid expectations that they will press ahead to retake the Kherson region and advance further into occupied Donbas.

Expectations are also low for Putin’s new conscript army, as reports come out that he cannot feed, clothe or arm them, and they are thrown into the front lines with little or no training.

And the Russian autocrat will be disheartened to learn that the United States will send new munitions and military vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new $725 million aid package designed to bolster the country’s defenses against Russian invasion, he said. the Ministry of Defence.