Military observer and former adviser to the Office of President Aleksey Arestovich believes that the West ended Putin's career, decapitated the Putin regime.
He expressed this opinion during a conversation with Russian opposition and human rights activist Mark Feygin on YouTube.
"The world will never be the same. In recent historical times, the world has collapsed twice: on February 24, 2022, when Putin started this senseless war, and yesterday, March 17, 2023, when a year later, he was issued an arrest warrant. This is a verdict personally, Putin. He was already named as a suspect in the MH17 case. Then it was already necessary to understand that this is not a red line, but a black mark. After all, this is not even an international court of the UN, where one could try to save face. The court in The Hague is a place for vile criminals. Going in a year from the president of the great world state, with nuclear weapons and everything, to a criminal who is accused of kidnapping children… there is nowhere else to fall."
Alexey Arestovich also drew attention to the fact that consequences are important in this situation for Ukraine, in addition to moral satisfaction. And under the practical consequences, he called the main thing that there would be no negotiations with Putin. Arestovich recalled that the decision of the President, the decision of the Ukrainian people, and the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine was approved a long time ago that negotiations with Russia would be conducted, but not with Putin. Now this decision has taken shape at the level of 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.
"This was done now that it became known that Xi Jinping was flying to Moscow. Now Xi Jinping is in a tough position. In a sense, the visit has devalued. Moreover, he became dangerous to the Chinese face. And we know what attention will be paid in the East to saving face. You are forced to shake hands with a man whom, more than half the world, all your respected partners, consider a child abductor.
Moreover, they all managed to give out their assessments: Biden, Scholz - they all spoke out. That is, now you have to go under the cameras and officially shake hands with the one who is considered the kidnapper of children. An arrest warrant has already been issued. And that's not counting all the other crimes.
The visit is devalued because proclaiming a worldwide historical friendship between China and a country led by a person for whom an arrest warrant has been issued is much more difficult than one would like.
Three days before the visit, they will not have time to rebuild the trip. They will have to go by inertia. But in fact, the Chinese establishment will need to think very hard about what to do with such a Russia. Because before that, it was a clear attempt to keep Putin in power, like a Chinese puppet. He was a good figure for China. The arrest broke the entire strategic policy of China towards the West and Russia. The key condition of this policy was to keep Putin in power as a highly convenient figure. You can get any concessions, technology, energy and everything else. Now China needs to restructure its strategy towards Russia. Putin is a prisoner who is temporarily at large.
In one move, the West ended Putin's career, decapitated the Putin regime, and at the same time broke China's strategy to keep Putin in power.
Note that this move was not made by state leaders, not by supranational structures such as NATO or the European Union. It was judgment."
