Putin’s Inner Circle of “ditto heads”

Isolated and paranoid, Putin has increasingly withdrawn from the usual wide array of advisers in the past two years to rely on a hardline group of military, security and spy service chiefs, whom he expects to carry out his orders. “He doesn’t ask for advice. He sets tasks and demands they are implemented,” according to one commentator.

Since Putin’s birth data is iffy it’s worth looking at their charts, bearing in mind that being reliant on a madman does not guarantee a stable career or lifestyle. Upsets on their astrology may refer to  personal circumstances in falling out of favour – or could be a clue to the survival of their Lord of Darkness.

  Best known in the west is Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister, whose foreign assets in US, EU, UK and Canada have been frozen. Born 21 March 1950 Moscow, he’s a volatile Sun Aries opposition Mars square Uranus; with a pushily confident Pluto opposition Venus and Jupiter in Aquarius. He’s in a meltdown panic since the invasion a few days back with tr Neptune square his Sun/Saturn and opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoints running on till late this April, and returning late September to mid February 2023; with 2023 bringing further Neptunian losses and disappointment as well. May this year onwards also has tr Uranus jolts and jangles hitting his Venus and then Pluto. 2025/26 will be his nadir with the tr Neptune Saturn in Aries hitting his Sun, Uranus, Mars T square.

Sergei Naryshkin, 27 October 1954 St Petersburg, the head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, another former KGB officer and a Soviet history expert, is a Sun, Mercury, Saturn (Moon) in Scorpio square Mars in Aquarius, with a lucky Uranus Jupiter in Cancer. He’s having a wild year, racketing between highs and extreme lows. Mid February (now) till mid March and again November to early January 2023 is calamity time; with a blip of enthusiasm in mid March; followed by more catastrophes in May, December and February 2023 – and complete disorientation August to November. Worse in 2024/25.

Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian security council, KGB with Putin since the 1970s, views the West as a crucible of decadence and has claimed that some European countries are “legalising marriage with animals”, 11 July 1951 St Petersburg. He has an over-excitable, none-too-sensible Sun, Uranus in Cancer on the point of a T Square to self-deceptive Jupiter opposition Neptune. His Solar Arc Sun is meeting a sobering brush with cold reality as it conjuncts his Saturn sometime in coming months. More pointedly he’ll be rattled from late April, and knocked completely sideways by disaster midpoints from late May to mid June, November, March 2023. This August to November will also be catastrophe territory for him.

Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, appears to have the closest relationship with Putin, accompanying him on hiking trips and holidays. He oversees the work of the GRU military intelligence service, accused of trying to assassinate Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy, with novichok in Salisbury in March 2018. He was born 21 May 1955 and is a stubborn last degree Taurus Sun square Pluto with Pluto square Saturn in Scorpio – unbudgeable. Mid March for a few weeks looks disorientating and devasting; late May to mid June will rattle his stability as tr Uranus opposes his Saturn. The high anxiety which marked this January, returns August to November, with 2023 being a downhill slide of panicky failure.

General Valery Gerasimov, head of the country’s military, 8 September 1955, a Sun, Mars, Venus in Virgo; with Saturn in Scorpio square Jupiter in Leo. Undermining Neptune transits now till late this April, and returning late September to mid February 2023. Late May to mid June flags up as high-tension and unstable with tr Uranus opposition his Saturn – as it does on several of the above charts.  He may have blips of good luck with Uranus square his Jupiter but on the whole it is a swampy year. 2023 will upset his apple cart as tr Pluto opposes his Uranus.

  Putin’s 4th Term chart, 7 May 2018 11.05am Moscow, is sagging under disappointment now till mid March; with shocks and jolts late May to mid June; some highs and lucky breaks thereafter alongside acute frustrations with tr Pluto conjunct the Mars.   Where it looks in most jeopardy is in a year’s time from February 2023 with the destabilizing tr Pluto square Uranus picking up and the Solar Arc Pluto closing the trapped conjunction to the Mars to exact in the months following.

  Deleting dictators can be a long drawn out agonising process, since they are supported by a clique who depend on them for survival, fiscal as well as literal. And very often have undeserved luck. The fates don’t always discriminate.

PS The headline is a steal from PJ O’Rourke.

42 thoughts on “Putin’s Inner Circle of “ditto heads”

  1. On March 3rd, Putin’s army shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, largest of its kind in Europe. A fire started but disaster was averted. The plant is in Russian hands now. However experts suggest they will attack the remaining three nuclear plants as well.

  2. Marjorie, with her customary percipience, identified all Putin’s elderly cronies, who no doubt have been supporting Putin’s curiously 19th century dreams of empire – very similar to Hitler’s idea of creating an empire of his own. Well, that went well: millions died, the 1,000 year empire barely made it to five years, and any attempts to go down in history as the saviour of the Aryans were much misplaced. Dictators rarely seem to learn the lessons of history: it is true that some of them manage to die in their beds, as opposed to being hanged from lamp-posts, but few die revered, admired and loved. Putin seems to want to go down in history as another Peter the Great, or Catherine the Great, who expanded the Russian empire and established its dominance. But it is one thing to conquer loosely governed areas of land with warring tribes and limited technology. It is another to try to take over, and run efficiently, a hitherto functioning democracy, with a civil service, a well organised infrastructure and a developed economy. Even if Putin imposes a puppet government in Ukraine, how is it actually going to function in the face of a reluctant populace? What if there are repeated general strikes? What if there is perpetual sabotage of communications or transport? It would take a lot of Russians to rule Ukraine. Unless they had some degree of acceptance from the local population, it would be very difficult to manage. Acceptance seems unlikely.

    During WWII, the Germans invaded Norway. They managed to take over the running of the country, up to a point, but they never won hearts and minds. They maintained control by regular atrocities, which of course worked in the short term. The Norwegian resistance used two simple techniques. They encouraged Norwegians never to reply to Germans in German (even though German was widely spoken) unless they had to, and whenever a German sat down in a train, or other public place, any Norwegians nearby would stand up and move away. The latter technique really rattled the Germans. And to be fair, if I’d be a German, as a member of an occupying army, I think I would felt the unspoken weight of social pressure. Some Russians may not feel that in Ukraine, but the videos of ordinary individuals making tanks swerve and of soldiers looking embarrassed as women of their mums’ age confront them, suggest that the Russians feel very uneasy.

    None of the individuals Marjorie identified were economists, and whatever one may think of the “dismal science”, if you can’t be on top of the economics, in the long run your core support runs out on you, as the populace loses its jobs, its savings, and its ability to buy the necessities, never mind the luxuries, of life. When your children don’t have enough to eat because of your government’s economic ineptitude, you tend not to feel warmly towards it. Sanctions may not affect a rural peasantry, but they certainly affect city dwellers. Inflation affects everyone. And sanctions will certainly affect the young, well educated citizens of Russia, some of whom, we understand, are appalled at what is happening, just as are their parents, not at all happy at the prospect of their sons being killed or taken captive, or at their sons having to fight fellow Slavs.

    I am with Louisa above: the Mars Pluto conjunction on 3rd March and the new moon the day before suggests that Putin may well do something catastrophic and ill-judged, which he hopes will force the issue, but turns out to do him as much as harm as he had hoped to inflict.

  3. Aline. I do not doubt agreements have not been kept. The whole eastern bloc was in turmoil when communism fell. However that was thirty years ago and Putin has started an illegal war. There is no justification for it at all. Putin will ultimately, like the Yugoslav criminals in the early nineties, wind up in The Hague. This reminds me so much of that dirty civil war. A dirty civil war that still causes heart ache all these years later.

  4. So, I tried to make some sense of these charts, and maybe bit enough, I don’t see very strong charts here. Maybe telling for a bunch of “lackeys”?

    Lavrov’s is possibly the most tied to Russia 1991 Chart, with his Sun-Uranus- Mars T-square being completed with Russian Federation/Dissolving Soviet Union Charts. However, now that Putin has efficiently self isolated, his superficial charm – I think this is his Aquarius Venus, that’s at almost maximum distance possible from his Sun, really distanced from his true self – won’t serve Putin. In addition, interestingly, he might have very late 29′ degree Pisces Sun and Aries Moon. I actually think at least one of these is possible, it would be really telling of his role as essentially the “last breath” of Soviet “Diplomacy”.

    Naryshin, on the other hand, has a chart that ties more to 1917 Revolution. I think it’s even possible his Moon is tied to Storming of Winter Palace Sun/Mercury, which would definitely explain his interest in subject. He has some staying power, but I doubt very little after intelligence blunders that have affected “Ukraine Campaign”. He is one of the likely scape goats.

    Patrushev’s chart, with that strong Cancer however slightly “off” to be really relevant compared to Russia 1991, interestingly ties more to the US Chart. So, I guess it’s really loath of “The West” driving him than love for his Nation. And he is over 70.

    Shoigu has been named as the possible “fall guy” for absolutely messing up logistics. I think his “moment” was a couple of years ago with tr. Pluto opposing his Uranus/Jupiter. Hard to tell how he’d react “irritated”, knowing he is set to fall. He is a solid Taurus Moon opposite Scorpio Saturn, so possibly loyal to the point of being stubborn. It’s just a question of where his loyalties lie. His father was Tuvan, but mother “Ukrainian born Russian”. He might even feel he is avenging his mother in a way.

    Gerasimov is the other possible “fall guy”, and I think he is the likeliest one here to turn on Putin, if someone will turn on him. First of all, he has quite a lot of Virgo, and Virgo can be practical to point of being treasonous. I think it’s interesting he has Sun/Venus, this is also often a “survivor” aspect. He also possibly has a mutable Gemini Moon. If I had to put money to someone “Ceasaring” Putin, Gerasimov would be by bet, but I’m actually not holding my breath here. I think that if there’s going to be a mutiny, it will start from lower ranks, just like March 1917 Revolution.

  5. It doesn’t help that by prevaricating over whether to fall in line with UK and the US, the EU are actually assisting Putin. Freezing Russian Bank accounts only work if all countries do it!

  6. I am way too distracted to find hopeful signs of an internal military coup, for a trusted Putin minion to ease Putin out of his throne and into a private hospital.

    Does anyone else see any?

  7. Thank you Marjorie. Trying to understand these astro patterns is one way of soothing our collective nerves. And here comes the nuclear threat….utter insanity prevails.

    I noticed how some of these individuals’ charts link with the 30 December 1922 chart for the USSR, with it’s Jupiter at 13 Scorpio, Neptune 17 Leo, and MC 18 Taurus. The nodes are 24 Virgo/Pisces. I’m wondering about the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction at 23/4 Pisces, and how it might connect to those USSR South nodes? What might be washed away, or be impossible to analyse or quantify? Yes, this is only one of the charts available for Russia, but I can’t help but think it could be significant, not least because of the centenary, and what we read about Putin’s dreams of an expanded Russian empire.

    There’s also a line up of Mars in Taurus, Uranus in Taurus, and NN in Taurus at 18 degrees at the end of July and start of August. That’s on the old USSR MC, and opposes the UK Neptune in Scorpio (money laundering?). It’s squared by Saturn in October, again at 18 degrees. It keys into several of the charts shown here too. Obviously, I hope it might signify sudden change at the top, or even some kind of uprising in Russia itself.

    • Interesting that we had that Jupiter/Neptune opposition 6 or so years ago it presaged the Syrian refugee crisis (flood) with Germany and other Western countries giving those refugees asylum. Of course Putin had a hand in creating those terrible conditions in the Syrian conflict as well as propping up his friend, Assad.

  8. Was looking for posts on the eclipses and happened back to your 12 Feb post:- ‘Putin’s 4th Term chart is also ramped up by the approaching brutal/ruthless Mars Pluto conjunction in late Capricorn, exact on March 3rd. The New Moon on March 2nd has a Pisces stellium of New Moon conjunct Jupiter and Neptune which falls in the 8th house of Putin’s Administration chart close to its Neptune – which might arguably suggest he’s drawn by a delusion/illusion into a serious miscalulation.’ Neptune anywhere makes me nervous. I have a (probably deluded) hope that when Mars eventually runs up against Saturn in a few weeks that it will put the brakes on it.

    • Thank you that’s interesting. Makes you wonder about the Russian economy and financial institutions with the 8th house. I wonder how he expected that to go

  9. Thank you Marjorie. The NYTimes published an article today with the headline “After long praising Putin, right-wing populists leaders are squirming.” While I’m no expert, and not sure if I’m interpreting this correctly but there seems to be astrological connections involving Pluto aspects, between the sagging charts of the above, in 2022/2023/2024 and the GOP right wing politicians who have been in Trump’s corner regarding Putin. Referring to your post: GOP’s fortunes tied to Trump’s- 9th January 2022, as well as many others you have posted over the past year

    • Indeed. Trump’s initial response to news of Putin’s invasion, ‘he’s a genius!’ isn’t going to exactly enhance his legacy.

  10. Hi there! I’m kind of new here, but I hope you have good news on what is coming next.

    The World doesn’t need this poop, the world is so tired of the drama and intrigue of a past that simply refusing to fade away.

  11. There is an expression in Dutch which roughly translates as: A cat when cornered will do the wildest things. Seems appropriate to today’s developments.

  12. Just an observation: When referring to Ukrainian capital in these conversations, please use the official English transliteration from Ukrainian, Kyiv, instead of transliteration from Russian, Kiev. I know this is an honest mistake, since many English language publications especially in the UK used Kiev up until a couple of days ago (wonder why, then, given oligarch money behind many…), but the US media has been cosistant with Kyiv for a while.

    • I think British people tend to think of 1970’s favourite “Chicken Kiev” rather than media having oligarch money behind them. In a couple of weeks I’m visiting Caerdydd, Cymru – but I doubt the Finnish media would call it that (maybe I’m wrong?)

      • @Tara, Kyiv is “Kiova” in Finnish, and I think this goes back to times when Finnic tribes traded furs down Dnepr. And sure, if majority of people in Cardiff were Welsh speaking, Wales declared independence and wanted this name used, we would. We are kind of funny that way when it comes to minority/endangered languages. We had our own language struggle in the 19th century, when administrative language was Swedish, spoken and read by then 15-20 per cent of population (upper class, Swedish speaking “working class” actually more numerous, and they organized first unions in the country). Have to admit that Finnish probably wouldn’t have caught as quickly as it did in the 1860’s if it wasn’t for Russians eager to break Finnish ties with Sweden.

        • That’s good to know. A trip to Wales feels quite exotic these days and if I dare to make is as far as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, I’ll call you to do the talking

          Although I’m sort of disappointed as I was expecting you to come back and tell me how popular “Chicken Cardiff” is in Finland

    • I didn’t realise until recently (also familiar with chicken Kiev) that the Ukrainian form is Kyiv but now use it in solidarity with Ukrainians. I checked with a Bulgarian who explained the difference for me having noticed the spelling in news articles.
      Most people in U.K.unless Eastern European experts probably don’t realise that Kiev is Russian? Or maybe I’m just dumb?

  13. Another quick observation: Non of these men is born later than 1955. So not exactly young and coming talents. Putin made that gamble with Dmitri Medvedev, September 14th 1965, 10 years ago, but that didn’t go well. “State oligarchs” too tend to be older generation, Putin’s judo friends are born 1951 or 1952.

    I definitely think Putin, who is struggling to trust anyone, finds it simply impossible to understand people whose “formative years” include post-Soviet era with some liberties.

  14. Thank you! Will analyse this later, but Shoigu and Gerasimov were there when Putin announced Russian Nuclear Forces have been brought to high allert and I think Shoigu especially couldn’t quite hide his contempt. I think he already knows Putin will throw him under the bus for bad logistic preparation of the “campaign”, so might make a move.

    • CNN now reporting that Putin ordered his country’s deterrence forces — which include nuclear arms — onto their highest state of alert on Sunday. So here we go … let’s hope the Russian generals won’t have it.

    • As Marjorie said the problem is a single man is making the decisions in Russia and imposing them on everyone else. For all its faults the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin did not operate that way. You might have seen Brezhnev and Kosygin as its “leaders” in the 1970s but real power was held collectively by the Praesidium. This is not how Russia works under Putin so there are less checks on individuals making risky gambles.

      I don’t hold Russia entirely responsible for the current situation as the eastern expansion of NATO feeds into the paranoia of the leadership in the Kremlin. The situation needs to be deescalated first by a cease fire in the current Ukrainian conflict and then by diplomatic negotiations. A solution needs to found that simultaneously guarantees Ukrainian independence and yet removes the feeling that Russia is being hemmed in by NATO militarily. Some sort of treaty arrangement whereby both NATO and Russia guarantors of the Ukraines neutrality would be the best solution. It it’s also important that the west gives the Russians and Putin away to back out as Kennedy did with Krushchev after the Cuban missile crisis.

      This war in the Ukraine is the greatest tragedy in Europe I have seen in my lifetime, particularly as nations involved really are so closely linked by culture and history and had to endure so much bloodshed and suffering in the 20th century.

      • I agree with you but can’t see treaty arrangements happen, for the very reason you’re spelling out “a single man is making the decisions”. Angela Merkel has said “Putin has changed” this an irrational guy surrounded by “ditto heads” instead of advisers. He won’t let Ukraine remain independent. Accepting treaties would make him look weak.

      • I totally agree with hugh. In search of information, i discovered that when the iron curtain fell, there has been a ” gentleman’ agreement” made between usa ( nato) and gorbatchow that nato would not expand further.
        In 2014 france and germany intervened in the situation of the dombass province so that also an agreement was signed between russia and ukraine to keep the peace there. It seems that this agreement has not been respected either.
        I heard zelensky in an interview ( translated) that “promises have not been kept”. What promises and to whom ?
        Europe should be well inpired to help the antagonists to talk to each other instead of giving weapons to ukraine that will lead only to more bloodshed and more sorrow .
        Putin is of course the culprit of the war, but there are as i understand responsabilities elsewhere.

  15. the terrifying aspect of a madman is that he will go to any length, including sacrificing his own people; as with Hitler, there is no ‘appeasing’ him; latest news is that he is preparing for launching nuclear weapons – presumably to stop the West from assisting Ukraine, as he sees that Ukraine might not go down as easily as he counted on and is gathering support from previously hesitant nations. If this deters Western democracies, it only encourages him to go further in his ambitions, as he is already threatening Finland and Sweden, another set of countries he considers his ‘backyard’. If not, what will prevent a nuclear world war ? except if by some miracle, his own army and people turn against Putin?

    • Agree. Just wanted to add, if he’s come to the point where he is threatening the use of short range nuclear weapons, it means things are not going the way he thought they would. This is a desperate move on his part. Many reports coming in of exhausted and disoriented Russian troops and then of course this is day three and he thought that by now Kiev would be his. It never occured to him that the Ukrainian people didn’t want Russian troops there and that they were firmly behind their president. His disinformation and ignorance is coming back to smack him right in the face

  16. Find it interesting that the last czar had Sun in Taurus opposition Saturn and Putin has Sun conjunction Saturn (and Neptune). Is this a hint that Putin might ultimately fail? Any connections between both? Putin is Libra and this should be a “peaceful” sign. Sorry for the cliche, but why can Libra sometimes become so hostile? Hitler had a Libra ascendant and I also have a Libra ascendant, so that worries me sometimes.

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