Ah, The "Backtracking" By Khodaryonok.

I seldom post here anything from a human brothel of CNN, but I do now because it is symptomatic. 

Make no mistake, no person of basic ethics and integrity would go to work for CNN, but after a major (in their minds) informational "coup" with Mr. Khodaryonok's recent "revelations", CNN tries to make a case that Khodaryonok's "backtracking" is some kind of "Putin's regime" pressure. Of course it is not, despite CNN producing copious amounts of BS on anything Russia related, which this report is an Exhibit A of these beaten to death tropes. 

No, Khodaryonok started to backtrack because he is a coward and defeatist, and most likely there were many people, including from Russia's General Staff and Foreign Ministry who, after Khodarynok's verbal excrement, especially about Russia's "isolation", simply told him to his face the same what I wrote in the previous post and in this one. As I already stated not for once, for years this creep was not just utterly wrong in his "forecasts" but he was offering opinions on subjects of which he has very little, if any, understanding, especially in the time when some platitudes simply do not fly in specialists and professional circles. And, of course, this former officer has next to zero understanding of the political, military and economic dynamics of the combined West. 

Now, when he understood that he, basically, paraded himself (yet again) as a jackass and that could cost him his "journo" and "analytical" sinecures, because no respectable Russian media outlet would want to hear and pay to him for his sophomoric "opinions" on geopolitics anymore, he started to backtrack, he started a classic damage control routine which has zero relation to integrity and ethics but a lot with personal pockets. Once removed from the informational and cultural environment of the General Staff of Russia, Khodaryonok (or Khodarenok in other spelling) found himself completely detached from the military-political and military-economic realities of both Russia and, especially, the combined West and was forced to speak from his personal experiences of the Russian Armed Forces of 1990s, which, for all intents and purposes were in the process of disintegration. This also can explain a lot in his views. And then, of course, he was patently wrong in his description of Russia's "isolation". Hence, backtracking. So, here it is. A Freudian slip, an internal "struggle" with whatever complexes Khodaryonok suffers from, they all lead to this. 

-Учитывая, что европейская помощь вступит в полную силу и в бой может вступить один миллион вооруженных украинских солдат, нам нужно видеть эту реальность ближайшего будущего, и мы должны учитывать это в наших оперативных и стратегических расчетах. Ситуация для нас будет откровенно хуже. Давайте посмотрим на эту ситуацию в целом с точки зрения нашей общей стратегической позиции, — сказал он. - Давайте не будем махать ракетами в сторону Финляндии — это выглядит просто смешно. Самая большая проблема нашего военно-политического положения в том, что мы находимся в полной геополитической изоляции. И весь мир против нас — даже если мы не хотим этого признавать.

Translation:  Given that European assistance will come into full force and one million armed Ukrainian soldiers may enter the battle, we need to see this reality of the near future, and we must take this into account in our operational and strategic calculations. The situation for us will be frankly worse,” he said. “Let's look at this situation as a whole in terms of our overall strategic position,” he said. - Let's not wave rockets towards Finland - it just looks ridiculous. The biggest problem of our military-political situation is that we are in complete geopolitical isolation. And the whole world is against us - even if we don't want to admit it.

Somebody should have told him, that for the last 22 years he is nothing more than military "journo" and knows nothing about modern world. I doubt he ever knew. SMO achieved an incredible result--it served as a litmus test, which Khodaryonok failed in a spectacular fashion. Time for him to apply for job at CNN or Fox.