I don't know, at some point, control is not real - even Hitler faced several attempts on his life, Putin should be very worried that someone is going to simply take him out. DD
The impression of Russia is that they would never be easy to beat. The opposite of easy to conquer. Like for instance I would rather attack France if forced to make a decision lol
Russia was toast in WW2 at one point, the Germans were only like 50 miles from Moscow - but the US was sending tons of military aid, and steel into Russia to help them resist, and the winter, also bogged Germany down, as well as having to fight on two fronts. It allowed Russia to build up a massive army, and the bombing of Germany by our allies stopped their production allowed both sides of the candle to flame out. DD
This simply isn't true. Yeltsin was president until 1999. Russia wanted economic assistance from the US but only received a small amount. They were expecting a 1940's type Marshall Plan and wanted to develop a strong economy and become a well-to-do member of the European community. Instead, they felt betrayed as NATO simply expanded and the investment never came. I don't think NATO expanding was a mistake given how things have played out. But I am sure that the US made a mistake in not helping the Russians more actively rebuild their economy and shift to a stronger liberal democracy, which ironically would have stopped Putin from taking absolute power. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-13-mn-1092-story.html This was a miss by both Bush & Clinton before Putin came to power. The US could have been more involved in saving Russia's economy, and because of their hardships it created a yearning for going back to socialism, which Putin delivered.
I know there's this domestic issue between Trump trying to make Biden look bad over how he addresses this war, and liberals blaming Trump for being over-friendly with Putin. This has nothing to do with all that. I'm wary of war propaganda that we might be consuming. I'm thinking about the minutae about Putin being surprised by stout Ukrainian resistance, sanctions having outsized effects on the Russian economy, corruption undermining Russian battle-readiness, Putin being unhinged or bent on world domination, Russian citizens being misled about the war, and other stuff like that. Any or all of those things might even be true. But I feel like we're blowing sunshine up our own asses, to borrow an expression from heypartner. I don't know if that's intentional for mobilizing the populace, or it's just a natural thing people do among themselves in situations like these. But I'm wary we might give ourselves a warped view of the conflict and public sentiment may drive decisions that are suboptimal because we've worked ourselves up. It's probably hopeless, but I'd urge Americans to be very careful about understanding how you know what you know, and be humble about how certain you can be about how this whole thing should end.
Nobody knows how it will end. It's all speculative. What isn't speculative is that Putin is a murderer, liar, and evil man who should never be trusted.
Sidelines of the pistons and pacers game where Ron Artest and Ben Wallace are playing in. @Os Trigonum @basso
No but the degree of those outcomes he probably didn’t predict. Him not winning and overwhelming Ukrainian defenses in the initial attack. He probably didn’t anticipate the fight of the Ukrainians. He thought there would be less bloodshed. That Ukrainians would give up quick. The longer this goes on the worse the outcomes get for Putin. He underestimated the risks and overrated the rewards for said risks.
Most of the Oligarch’s money is Putin’s. Their wealth is tied to Putin. Half of them wouldn’t be billionaires without Putin. That’s why it is laughable when they say Putin is only “worth” a couple million. He has probably 100s of billion dollars hidden through those Oligarchs
Well yeah, Russia would be brutal to CONQUER but should be relatively easy to defend against (aside from Nukes) today. This is not the Soviet Union. Russia is a significantly smaller economy than it used to be with a much less powerful military that is hamstrung by spending. Conquering would be tough because of terrain like always, but we have no desire to conquer them.
I'd say he fumbled the ball on the Blitzkrieg by not wanting to damage too much infrastructure. Fast, overwhelming artillery and air pounding to soften up military targets which not only kills opposition but demoralizes the populace, then the land lightning attack. I mentioned a few days ago that the best bet Ukraine has is to prolong the war. I still think foreign troops will be needed to back Russia off. Putin is prepared to put his country through rough economic times to win, but he won't test losing Russia.
