Putin has become a ‘laughing stock’, says former Russian vice president

Vladimir Putin has become a “laughing stock” after surrounding himself with “absolutely incompetent” military commanders before the war in Ukraine, the former Russian vice president has said in a scathing attack on the Russian president.

Alexander Rutskoy, a former Soviet general, accused Putin of “senselessly” killing tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who have been used as cannon fodder in the war.

Rutskoy, who served as a deputy to President Boris Yeltsin, said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should never have been launched.

“If the military doesn’t have the ability to conduct strategic offensive operations, then it’s better not to try it, especially outside of your own country,” Rutskoy said.

He added: ‘Everything that is happening today is explained by the fact that our armed forces are not in a position, I stress, to carry out strategic offensive operations.

‘Why….? For a quarter of a century the armed forces have been run by incompetent people, utterly incompetent.’

“The result is carnage in the Ukraine, where Russia has suffered losses estimated at 175,000 in less than a year,” Rutskoy said.

“This is a tragedy for our country,” said Rutskoy, the only man to serve as Russia’s vice president. ‘This is a tragedy, because people are dying.

‘People are dying senselessly, even though the slogan is ‘Defend Russia’. Where are they defending Russia?

Why do they die…? Who has the right to separate a father from his children?

‘Who gave the right to take children from mothers and fathers? Nobody….’

Rutskoy, who served as a deputy to President Boris Yeltsin, said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should never have been launched. In the picture: Rutskoy (right) with Putin (center)

He referred to strongly disputed claims by Russia that Britain was behind the explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea, built to transport gas to the European market.

Britain blew up the Nord Stream pipelines [in the Baltic],’ he claimed. ‘And what is the reaction? Nothing. Just blah blah blah.

‘Why is this happening? Because from a military point of view, we don’t have strategic planning. The president expresses his intentions, which are not carried out. He makes him a laughingstock.

Putin has surrounded himself with security officials and others who lack high-level military training and skills, Rutskoy said.

This includes defense minister Sergei Shoigu, who, despite now holding the rank of army general, is not a career soldier but a politician known for his loyalty to Putin, Rutskoy said.

His predecessor, a furniture businessman, Anatoly Serdyukov was “some kind of driver, corporal and nothing more”, who was promoted because his then-wife was the daughter of a close Putin crony.

Rutskoy added that the key people “never commanded or directed anything.”

Ukrainian firefighters work on a burning house after Russian shelling in the city of Kherson on Sunday.

He said: ‘Who do we have in the Security Council of the Russian Federation? Not a single person who has served in the military, not a single person who has a military education.

‘Nobody, and now they are sitting there, making decisions about how to carry out the special military operation. Well, jokingly, this is the same as impotent men making decisions about sexual encounters.

‘What kind of sex can we talk about if you’re impotent? It’s the same there. It’s all the same.

‘The Security Council of a huge country and not a single person has military experience. Not a single person.

Rutskoy, 75, was speaking with host Andrey Kovalyov on Kovalyov’s Principle YouTube channel.

He was once proclaimed interim president of Russia by the country’s parliament in a clash with Yeltsin.

But Yeltsin replaced parliament, and Rutskoy, along with hardline MPs, was briefly jailed.

The nationalist politician was vice president from 1991 to 1993 after a high-flying career in the Soviet Army, where he held the rank of aviation major general.

He was shot down three times during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, where he commanded an independent air raid regiment of the 40th Army.

Rutskoy was named a Hero of the Soviet Union in 1988. He later served as governor of the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, during Putin’s presidency.