PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN HAS LOST LEGITIMACY TO LEAD RUSSIA: TIME FOR HIM TO GO.

ICHEOKU says the West must not wait until President Vladimir Putin first wipes off the map, a major Western city, before taking his threats of nuclear annihilation more seriously. The Russian strongman has lost his marbles and by attacking Ukraine, despite all the assurances he gave the world that he will not attack the country, shows a man who is completely unhinged and possibly trying to go down with millions of innocent souls. 

The West should therefore treat his latest threat of a nuclear attack very seriously, and ready itself for it and also prepare for a swift and devastating punitive retaliatory response in kind. The fact that he is now readying his anti aircrafts and anti missiles S-400 Triumf Air Defense Missile Systems based in Siberia shows that Ukraine is no longer his main focus, already feeling mission-accomplished on that; and has moved his eyes on his other major prize, other former Soviet countries who are now members of NATO.  The question remains: would NATO fight in defense of these countries or will they shirk away at the opportune time simply because of fear of Putin's threatened use of nuclear weapons?

The other day President Vladimir Putin said he had a couple of words for those in the West who might be tempted to interfere in what he is doing in Ukraine or intervene to protect Ukraine or in any other way try to harm Russia. According to him, Russia's response to such provocative action will be immediate and will lead to consequences which the West have not seen nor imagined ever before, and throughout their history. Many analysts, including ICHEOKU, interpreted his remarks as a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the West should they provoke him any further. What other thing could President Vladimir Putin possibly do to the West that would have such adverse consequences which nobody has ever seen nor imagined  before, and throughout history?

A day after making the threat and to ensure that nobody was left in doubt about what he said, he  took additional steps towards this intention by ordering Russian defense officials and top military commanders to put Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on a heightened red alert. He ordered them to be on a "special regime of combat duty" readiness, thus ratcheting up the tension between his country and the West and increasing the threat of nuclear war between Russia and the West. It is a war which both sides will suffer dearly from, but it is a war which the West must not shy away from just because President Vladimir Putin is a mad man and does not care if millions of people perish as a result. 

He could be bluffing or just making empty threats to scare the West away from defending those former Soviet countries when he finally attacks them. But whatever may be the underlying factor, his threat should not be dismissed, but treated with every seriousness commensurate to such a threat. What he said previously coupled to his new direct order on his defense officials and military commanders should be clear enough evidence that President Vladimir Putin is poised to use nuclear weapons against the West. 

It requires no further effort at understanding or interpretation or any other nuanced reading for context. It should be taken at face value that he actually intends to use nuclear weapons in any confrontation with the West and wants the weapons readied now and handy for use when he orders it. He has also conducted nuclear drills and test-fired some nuclear warheads carrying missiles in recent days in furtherance of his preparation and readiness to use them.

The West should immediately counter his threat by also announcing their own preparations for use of nuclear weapons. They should start undermining his government towards delegitimizing him and find a way to remove him from office and put him out of power. The West should reach out to senior Russian military officers and persuade them to move against President Vladimir Putin. Taking him out of power is the only magic silver bullet that will end the recurring Putin problem; just kill the Kremlin monster and solve his problem once and for all. 

Overthrowing President Vladimir Putin is the right thing to do in order to achieve an enduring peace between the West and Russia. What we have in Russia is a dictatorship and not a democracy, so there will be no argument about the need to protect Russia's democracy. Moving against President Vladimir Putin will be finding a permanent and long term solution to Putin's problem. This should be an added focus of the West as they continue to help Ukraine in their war against the invading Russians. President Vladimir Putin should be removed from office now and permanently separated from power and Russia's stockpile of nuclear weapons before he causes a mushroom cloud to hang over a Western city. 

Were President Vladimir Putin a rational person, maybe the West can continue with its appeasing containment accommodation of him, but he is not. He has completely lost his mind and has repeatedly shown that he is not rational and his capacity to lie is now beyond belief. He cannot be trusted and his words do not mean much, if anything. So, continuing to have such a psychopath in charge of Russia and its nuclear stockpile should no longer be an option. He should be removed from office however possible and regardless of the short term cost of such effort. The long term benefit of his removal to overall world peace, particularly Russia's neighboring countries, will be tremendous. 

The West should seriously consider confronting Putin now in Ukraine and in victory, force him to cough up Crimea. If he is allowed to secure victory in Ukraine just because the West is afraid of his threat of nuclear weapons use, he will eventually come for the rest of former Soviet countries now members of NATO. Will the West then also pony up these countries to Putin since his nuclear weapons use threat is still subsisting and not lifted nor defused? This should be the reason the West should jump into the fray now and defeat him in Ukraine rather than wait for him to score victory and then make a play for other former Soviet countries. He should be discouraged in defeat now in Ukraine than allow his victory there to propel him to other victories elsewhere. 

The fear of nuclear weapons should not scare the West away or intimidate them into abandoning  a confrontation with President Vladimir Putin's Russia. Many people survived the Nagasaki and Hiroshima explosions and so will many people also survive any nuclear attack on the West by President Vladimir Putin. He is not immune from atomic annihilation himself and likewise his Russian people who have tolerated and enabled his ruinousness for all these many years. Russians too are as susceptible to nuclear radiation and destruction, so the West should not succumb to the hostage of its fear. A nuke for a nuke is an existing deterrent and his irrationality does not seem to have reached the level of being oblivious of this fact of a mutually assured destruction.

The threat should be seen for what it is, an attempt to bully Ukraine into surrender and scare off the West from rendering help to Ukraine. He wants to keep the West away from sending troops to Ukraine and keep them on the sideline watching while he runs Ukraine over like a roadkill. The West must not allow themselves to be intimidated into inaction by his threat and should actively engage Putin now by rendering direct assistance to Ukraine. 

The West should join forces with Ukraine now and fight the Russian roguery while it is still confined within the borders of Ukraine. They must not wait for Russia to first declare victory in Ukraine and make an example out of Ukraine like they did in Chechnya before belatedly trying to head Russia off. Adolf Hitler started the same way, will the West allow President Vladimir Putin to be next? 

The true test of having a belief is what such believers are prepared to do in defense of their belief. If the West indeed believes in democracy and freedom, and also fights for values dear to them, they should be engaged right now in Ukraine, fighting alongside Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin is destroying Ukraine to prevent it from becoming a fully functioning democratic society where people's rights are protected and where people are free and not under the thumb  of one individual, a tin-coat dictator named Vladimir Putin. 

Therefore, under no circumstances must the West allow President Vladimir Putin to declare victory in Ukraine because such will send a wrong message that democracy was defeated in Ukraine because the West did not defend democracy in Ukraine and the West considered democracy in Ukraine as not worth being defended. It must not be a repeat of the Afghanistan experience where Afghans were abandoned and forced to go back to their Taliban vomit after 20 years of relatively blossoming freedom and  democracy. 

Ukraine has come a long way, 30 years of democracy and freedom, and should be assisted in their fight not to be forcibly dragged back to the asphyxiating Russian command and control of Putinistic autocracy. They are fighting to stay the course and the West should help them as an ally and ensure they are not forced back to acute dictatorship. Posterity will not forgive the West if cowardice or unnecessary hedging render them impotent and prevent them from rising up to the occasion of the challenge which President Vladimir Putin has now imposed on their moral compass. 

Will the West continue to watch as Putin destroys the beauty in Ukraine? Will the West continue to hide under NATO membership rule while Putin renders Ukraine a wasteland like he did to Chechnya? How many women and children must first die before the West is awoken from its slumber? Britain, France, Italy and other countries of Europe that were under Germany's boot were not members of NATO as NATO did not exist then, when America rose to the occasion with allied forces and liberated them. Kuwait was not a member of NATO when it was rescued from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army occupation. So, why is Ukraine being shortchanged? #SendTroopsIntoUkraineNow