I'm not so confident that it won't happen. What you may think you would never do, but you do it because of war has happened in history. I fear that Putin is not getting accurate reporting from his military and his advisors to act sensibly for himself and Russia. Second to that is he's not stable or he's on some kind of god mission.
Outside of a NATO nations attacking, why would Putin use nukes? Russia is not under foreign duress. He has Ukraine nearly surrounded. Outside of propaganda, what are the indicators he is unstable or on a god mission? He has had ceasefire talks with Ukraine. The Russian people are not in the near revolt status that has been talked about. Yes, he will continue to take back what was the old Russian federation. Removing Putin will unlikely stop the larger problem.
Russians are a bit more heartier than Americans. They can actually go more than 2 hours w/out food. And the Russian government put their people second. They are not afraid of getting voted out.
Americans Especially now are lazy and soft and easily offended by comedians or podcasters I know Russians they are way more grounded especially compared to the lunatics on the d&d also look at the Russians going to McDonald’s vs the Americans The Americans are fat @Jontro @Os Trigonum I’m with Rogan on this take
This is true; I think it's a point of national pride. Even The Pine Barrens episode of The Sopranos makes a point of how tough the Russian guy is. If you look at their history over the past 100 years, especially what they had to do to survive WWII, you'll understand how tough Russians are. That said, it's 2022 and Russians live a much better, Westernized life than they did 80 years ago. Tough is tough but starving is starving.
Will he use a tactical nuke against Ukraine? Not likely, but I don't feel comfortable that he won't. He misread the Ukraine invasion, thinking it was a quick job. That's probably because he's surrounded by yes man feeding him an inaccurate picture and/or his decision-making capacity is pretty bad. Both are factors for another great miscalculation. No one knows his true religious belief - it's a factor. He quoted the Bible directly as a mission for this war and he showcased his religious beliefs plenty in the past - now as I said before, I hope that's just for show and he's not bought into it. But anyone that said they know either way, well, they simply don't. Russia is certainly facing major stressors from increasing isolation and sanctions from both the private and public international sectors. His ability to continue wars for years has greatly diminished with limited resources that likely can't be refilled given the sudden shock of sanctions. At the same time, we do know that it's likely the west will not just maintain but increase Ukraina defensive and offensive capabilities. You can no longer assume Putin will win this war in the short term. You can assume that Russia will escalate to de-escalate. But I still don't think losing here would trigger a tactical nuke attack IF you have a person that is rational, see the picture at least with some accuracy, and have the ability to make at least decent decision. The Ukraine invasion is pretty solid evidence that he saw a distorted picture and he made bad decisions. His religious belief is iffy. In all, I don't trust that all those basic characteristics (rational, clarity, good decision making, not godmode) are all there with Putin. Either way, the US and the West should have contingency plans for all possibilities including nuke attack on Ukraine.
They live a life that gives them access to the rest of the world but the poor are arguably much worse off today than the USSR. In the USSR, there was mostly guaranteed housing, guaranteed employment, free education, etc.. Of course there were huge tradeoffs but if you go to rural parts of Russia (or really any rural area of the former USSR), you'll find lots of nostalgia for the economic security of the USSR. Its no different than the nostalgia that people in the Rust Belt and Appalachia have for the past. Those communities are also worse off today than they were 50 years ago. A lot of people in larger cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg are arguably living better lives today. It's debatable whether everyone else ended up with better lives. Russia's GDP is higher but the state is doing a much worse job of ensuring any of that wealth makes it to its citizenry. For all of the faults of the USSR, there was no equivalent to the oligarchs.
