“While I agree, that Putin is not ready for a land war on the Ukraine border, I do believe he is planning on conquering it very shortly and making it either part of Russia or a Russian puppet state.”
It seems as if Putin is trying to reestablish the borders of the Soviet Union. Russia is in a demographic collapse. The Russian education system disappeared. The technically trained and competent Russian military and scientists are soon to retire or die at their desks from old age. At a recent fire on board a submarine where new technology was being tested the many deaths were all senior captains. A room full of technically trained men who were all so long in the service (old) they were all senior captains...working as technicians. One of them grabbed the youngest man in the compartment and threw him through the hatch before sealing them all inside so they could try (and fail) to stop the evolving disaster.
If Russia doesn’t retake the old borders, which are defensible, then the only alternative they’ll ever have when threatened is to go nuclear.
At best improving the borders will only save Russia for about forty years. Probably along about that time it will become a majority Muslim country...with a huge nuclear arsenal and very few technically trained people.
“It seems as if Putin is trying to reestablish the borders of the Soviet Union. Russia is in a demographic collapse. The Russian education system disappeared. The technically trained and competent Russian military and scientists are soon to retire or die at their desks from old age. At a recent fire on board a submarine where new technology was being tested the many deaths were all senior captains. A room full of technically trained men who were all so long in the service (old) they were all senior captains...working as technicians. One of them grabbed the youngest man in the compartment and threw him through the hatch before sealing them all inside so they could try (and fail) to stop the evolving disaster.”
You are 20 years behind time. Browse open source from events related to the Russian versions of Raytheon and GBEB. Half of the engineers are in their 20s-30s. I know a 32-year-old naval architect from Sevmash who is making 490k rubles per month.
Keep in mind that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a reorganization. The CPSU went underground. Furthermore the KGB actually runs Russia and some of the Former Soviet Republics.