七慯拳 - The 7-harm fist

The 7-harmhis masterpiece The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was formidable with 7 formulae, injuring the heart, lung, liver and intestine, separation of internal organs, depleting the energy and striping of consciousness.

There are other martial arts in his novel than this, but somehow, this martial art is highly attractive to his readers, simply because of this. For one to be trained in the art, he first has to harm and causing internal injury to himself.

It is commonly used to describe strategies used to cause devastation to the opponent but in the process causing self-inflicted damages. An example of such strategy is the US sanction of semiconductors to China which in turn will cause huge business losses to US companies while causing stagnation China's industry machine.  

Fig 1. Crimean Bridge in flame (Russia accuses Ukraine of organizing Crimean Bridge blast (independent.co.ug)

I was surprised when the Crimean bridge was rocked by an explosion. It was the day after Putin's birthday. It seemed like Ukraine wanted to present Putin with a huge birthday gift. Ukraine was quick to let known that eventually all evidence of Russia existence and released a stamp with Crimean bridge on fire. There was even a video with the bridge in flame while birthday song of Marilyn Monroe super imposed. 

Ukraine neither admit nor deny the act all this while.

It silent the world, especially when Putin was threatening nuclear option should the annexed territory be intruded. Everyone's attention was on how Russia will react to this attack. Are they true to their words?

The reaction from the Russian government was quick, its transport minister was quick to reach the site, assessed the situation and promised to restoration of traffic the next day. 

Investigation quickly yielded result claiming that the explosion was caused by a truck filled with explosive. the driver was identified, it further that 12 people were involved and that 5 arrests were made and that concluded that Ukraine was behind the planning and execution of the attack, which took more than 4 months of preparation.

Monday, Putin claimed that the attack was a terrorist attack and labelled Ukraine as a terrorist. He appointed a new general in charge tad the Ukraine war, Sergey Surovikin who was known for his ruthless handling of the Syrian war. 

True to his nature, he ordered bombardment of various Ukrainian cities, causing death of Ukrainian civilians and damaging civilian properties. As a result, leading to strong international condemnation.

There was a part of me believing the possibility that the attack was the result of Ukrainian sabotage, especially when the bridge was crucial to military supply to the Russian frontline at Kerson. It would also be a hit to the morale of Russia and a double down calling Putin out on his nuclear threat.

However, this attack was really unnecessary especially when Ukraine is winning the war. The blowing up of the bridge will only be more a symbolism than practical. I am sure that President Zelenskyy would not want to jeopardize his attack plan with such a move.

Analyzing the behavior from Russia side on the other hand leads to more suspicion, this especially when the telecast the event, demonstrating the level of concern over the devastation, and that claiming Putin was given hourly update of the development. 

It much differs from the way they normally react to Ukrainian attack, which was in denial and blaming accidental act to avoid breaking of people morale.

This seem to me that they are putting on a show and stirring up emotion of the people. 

The story line was too perfect and considering a country with such level of bureaucracy, they are overly efficient to reach their conclusion. In a country where the government care less of its people, evidence from their lack of care of their troops in the frontline, they suddenly care too much about the harm caused to the people.

Not only that, the Foreign Minister also furnished in his news conference that Russian reporter team conned a staff from Ukrainian president to reveal that USA was in fact behind Ukraine aggression against Russia, without proof.

The video at the moment of explosion was released, while it was clear that the explosion happened when the truck reached point zero, the explosion was not initiated from the truck, the truck was more a victim of the explosion. Furthermore, the explosion was seen coming from the right of the truck.

In addition, if the explosion was from the truck, the force it created would not have lifter the bridge causing it to collapse in the way it would. Only an explosion from below the bridge would lift the part of the bridge. 

The whole thing seems very scripted, and it is pointing me towards a planned event by Russia. If this is so, why Russia, or Putin wants to cause harm to his own countrymen?

What I see is that the battle at the front line is not doing well for Putin, even his announcement of annexation not able to stop the advancement of the Ukrainian troops while his army is fast being disabled. His call for partial deployment in guise of security implementation at the annexed regions led to protests of multiple cities, exodus of Russian citizens and fast losing support from the pro-war faction.

He needs a quick fix by creating a common enemy and redirect people's attention to Ukraine. A symbol of national pride needs to be attacked to do so.

By attacking the Crimea bridge, he hopes to stir up the patriotic emotion of Russians to target Ukraine as their enemy. Further bombing of Ukraine while not fulfilling any military objective, it serves his propaganda to show he is still aggressive and in control of the war. Without the support from within, he will be removed and his end will not look well.

He in effect is trying to regain support from both supporter of war and Russian patriots.

What is the truth then? From the recent actions he has taken, seeking dialogue with Biden, calling Turkey president for truce intermediary, offering to re-establish natural gas supply to Germany and France. All these are signs he is begging for help to stop the war.

May be he should have been content with his gain in 2014, may be he should have taken that offer when Zelenskyy requested for that dialogue in January, February and March 2022. well, it is a little late for that now.