When I look at conflict in the world, I see hard line dictators, the world is watching the war crimes unfold in Ukraine brought about exclusively by Russian President and dictator Vladimir Putin. Whilst we see Putin retaining a tight grip on power, should further losses cause this megalomaniac to be toppled, there are plenty of other hardliners to replace him including PMC Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin.

If we review the disastrous invasion of Ukraine, the antics of Chechen leader Razan Kadyrov is beyond ridicule. As a token leader of Chechnya, the Putin installed puppet is making a first class laughing stock of himself, he is incapable of performing push-ups, runs around making ridiculous videos of himself firing weapons with vehicles circling – this must be a joke.

China’s Xi Jinping, sometimes ridiculed as Winnie the Pooh has openly stated he will retake Taiwan by any means necessary including by military action and has redrawn the Chinese constitution to become leader for life. Former US President claimed the election was stolen from him and was pivotal in inciting the insurrection on the Capital. Seeing the US insurrection, Brazilian supporters of Jair Bolsonaro staged their own insurrection on the Brazilian government and courts. Fortunately, just like the idiodic Trump supporters, their coup failed as well and all their ultra right-wing fascists were rounded up and the insurrection put down.

Supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarus dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko is sometimes credited as Europe’s last dictator. What we are seeing in Belarus is material support for Putin’s war, the Ukrainians have to divide their resources to protect their northern border. The invasion was launched from Belarus and Kyiv remains under constant threat due to the relatively close proximity to the border. Lukashenko is looking increasingly sick, his reign looks to be coming to an end and this can only be a good thing.

Likewise, although Hungary is a NATO member, they are obstructing NATO support for Ukraine by not allowing weapons to be transported through their territory. Poland on the other hand has been wholly supportive of Ukraine. Viktor Orban has been described as the weak link in NATO, amazingly Orban claimed only Donald Trump could stop this war with Ukraine when in reality, all the Republicans want to do is withdraw support for Ukraine and undermine NATO. For statements like this, one can only assume he is an idiot.

Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, India’s Narendra Modi, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro have all been named as fascist style leaders of their respective countries by numerous think tanks. I agree with that list with the exception of Modi, I tend to think he is the right person for India who will stand up to Xi Jinping and their issues with China. India is a nation with a large population but still developing with huge disparities in wealth distribution that will hopefully be solved in my lifetime.

When I view flashpoints and conflict, I begin with the leadership, or lack lack thereof. My blog started back in 2013 when my Turkish friends asked me to use social media to broadcast the wrongs of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and so this blog was born. Donald Trump was a one term President, the world is a better place for this. He did more to undermine NATO than any other President and gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the confidence to attack Ukraine. Who could forget his recorded telephone conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky in 2019 threatening to withhold military support in return for information on Hunter Biden.