ANALYSIS: Former Pentagon Official Pushes Russian Propaganda, Comparing Zelensky’s Situation to Mussolini’s

In his March 3 article for the Asia Times entitled “Nazi rescue of Mussolini a US model for Zelensky,” Stephen Bryen suggests that Ukraine’s President may soon have to flee.

Bryen suggests that Russian forces are seizing huge areas of Ukraine after its breakthrough in Avdiivka, the government prevents the holding of elections, unrest within the country is growing, anyone who opposes President Volodymyr Zelensky is replaced or imprisoned, the authorities are using force to attract recruits, and sporadic riots are breaking out against unpopular measures in the large cities of Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv.

He concludes that this, combined with Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate until Russia is expelled from Ukrainian territory and its leaders face war crime trials, means that the president’s security situation is rapidly becoming terminal, leaving the US no option but to evacuate Zelensky and replace him with someone more amenable to suing for peace and more acceptable to Vladimir Putin.

He draws a comparison with the situation faced by Benito Mussolini in 1943 when, as he was arrested and about to be forced out of office, Hitler dispatched a force of paratroopers and Waffen SS to release him and force his enemies into exile.

Needless to say, the pro-Kremlin media, Ria Novosti and Vesti, seized on the article as evidence that the end for Kyiv was in sight.

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Bryen has a track record for making bleak predictions about the war with articles and broadcasts, including those in the online publication Weapons and Strategy where he is listed as the editor-in-chief, with titles such as:

“Ukraine: Has the US Lost Yet Another Proxy War?”

“Regime Change Is Coming to Kiev - Zelensky May Soon Be Forced Out Thanks to Avdiivka.”

“Fire Jens Stoltenberg Now Before It Is Too Late!”

“NATO Needs to Pull its Soldiers from Ukraine.”

Let’s have a look at Bryen’s evidence that Ukraine, in general, and President Zelensky, in particular, are on their last legs.

Russia’s Advances: the loss of Avdiivka was a blow to Ukraine but Moscow’s gains in the following month have been minimal and the recent signs are that its forces are being held if not forced back in a number of areas.

Blocking elections: Zelensky and other members of the Ukrainian government have clearly laid out the legal, operational, financial and political situation why it is not possible to hold the vote under martial law.

Social unrest: the protests that have occurred are largely around calls for more funds to be allocated to the armed forces or for volunteers to be withdrawn after long periods of service and they have been almost totally peaceful, if occasionally noisy and certainly can’t be categorized as riots.

Removing opponents: like all Governments during peacetime, let alone when at war, Kyiv has regularly changed some of its political and military members and leadership. Claiming that opponents have been imprisoned for political reasons is also false, the courts have acted in a crackdown on corruption within the business and political classes and if Ukraine is “overzealous,” it is because action has been insisted upon by the EU and NATO if Kyiv is to become a member of their organizations.

The independent Russian news site The Insider has included Bryen’s piece in the “anti-fake” section of its online publication calling his logic “completely incomprehensible.” I. for one, concur with that assessment.