So Much Has Accelerated, Since The Not-Petya Attack Four Years Ago...

As we write this, EU leaders are closing Western European airspace to Russian airlines, the SWIFT network is locking out certain state connected Russian banks, there are moves to track Bitcoin, to be sure Russian state affiliated actors cannot use it to launder money, and evade sanctions. . . and there is talk of a widening war against Ukraine infrastructure by Putin's cyber-espionage teams.

In sum, the world has accelerated -- in the four years since Merck was collateral damage in a political ransomware hack, out of Russia-affiliated forces.

We shall see, but I suspect that in this new world, Putin has underestimated what it takes to conduct a ground war in Central Europe -- there are reports of tanks out of diesel, on the highways outside Ukraine cities, and Russian tank commanders sending their charges off to scrounge food, of all things. I think Putin expected the "shock and awe" would work. It doesn't look like it did.

Of course, longer term, the Russian supply lines will reach these tanks. And it may all still be a puppet regime we see installed there. But I would not count out the ability of these "new economy" measures. . . to deeply impede old Vlad.

Meanwhile, Tangerine at CPAC continues to speak against his own nation. He is a useless tub of goo. Let's get him a rest home (permanent!) in Moscow. . . like stat!

नमस्ते