Posted on 02/27/2022 4:22:32 AM PST by Kaslin
There is something else going on because this move is very out of character for Putin in that he has gambled everything on a 50/50 proposition at best and the downsides for him and Russia appear to outweigh any short-term gains.
The Oligarchs in Russia don’t support this move as much of their wealth is in the West.
It risks his energy exports to Europe and pushes them to a partner they historically distrust and have had conflict with (China). It risks exposing his military as a less than formidable force.
It erases any traction Putin had on the world stage or within the UN. It harms Putin’s popularity at home. Putin’s “reputation” is in tatters.
We are missing something here because this move is irrational based on what we know. Putin had achieved much of what he wanted prior to invading and it looks like an “all-in” hand in poker with a pair of 7’s.
Too many threads here on FR about Putin involve some other issue such as wokeism or other social issues but as a pure strategic problem I don’t understand why he did this....
He is a vain man who tries to rule with an iron fist but he has always been pretty careful. This is anything but careful.
It may be that the extended drought going on around the world has had a major impact on the Russian agricultural system. Rather then negotiate payment for foodstuffs, which would cost more treasure than available, why not steal the store?
That reminds me of The Devil’s Alternative. A massive famine got the USSR planning to invade Europe for the farmland.
Don't ax me to speculate on what those could be... except honestly I don't see how Zelenskyy himself would be worth moving into a city like that for them. But then again I wouldn't know anyway.
Talk about having the home field advantage...
The super-rich in Russia enjoy the largest wealth disparity in the world. A quick article (Moscow Times)and you can read the first few paragraphs is linked below and there are others (I think Heritage Foundation had a good one too).
These are the people who put Putin on the throne. Nearly all of them are close to Putin and all of them wield great power within Russia.
Ask yourself why they would want this? They have grown more wealthy during the “pandemic”. With the energy policy of Biden and the Euros all of them would likely grow far more wealthy.
Why do they risk this? There is great opposition to Putin politically within Russia and therefore opposition to them.
Why the big gamble on Ukraine? I get that Ukraine is a resource-wealthy nation. I understand the geopolitical arguments and even the security (we don’t want NATO on our border) arguments.
This move by Putin puts the oligarchs at great risk because Putin is their guy. If Putin is dethroned what happens to the oligarchs given the underlying anger among many in Russia about the wealth disparity (and corruption)?
The oligarchs have done well in the last two years. This not only puts Putin at risk but potentially puts them at great risk as well given that the West is freezing their assets. The Russian people resent the oligarchs. Putin has put their futures at risk as well.
Again, this move appears illogical and it goes AGAINST the interest of the 500 wealthy Russians who own 98% plus of the wealth in the nation. The resentment of the Russian people will only grow.
The only thing I can think of here is gross miscalculation based his misread of America’s temporary weakness under Biden, his belief that the West’s dependence on Russian oil would paralyze any meaningful response, and possibly bad information fed to him about Russian military prowess that have pushed him to this gamble.
Looks like right now he is escalating after his initial lack of success, which is essentially reinforcing failure (remember Vietnam?).
What is concerning are recent veiled nuclear threats emanating from the Kremlin. Those weapons are to be used in the event of an existential threat to Russia, which obviously Ukraine is not. But this debacle is an existential threat to Putin’s power. It becomes increasingly hard to see how he can extract himself from Ukraine and keep his position.
We already know Putin’s goal. Force Ukraine to surrender, de-militarize, and accept a puppet government with Russian occupiers.
Putin wants Ukraine to become a “country in name only.”
“Americans love a winner and can not tolerate a loser!’’.- General George Patton.
It appears that while CNN and Fox Snooze have been manipulating and distorting the situation Putin has been carrying out his major objectives of taking out EU/NATO military bases near his border, destroying 6 US bio weapons labs, taking down a major child trafficking operation in the Chernobyl region and using all this smoke and mirrors to facilitate his operatives hunting down a list of most wanted NWO thugs. He’s likely near to wrapping up at this point. Now he’s going to let Zelensky cut a deal.
Biden should offer to send Putin the entire George Soros family for good keeping.
Wow. I am really curious about where you get your information.
I believe the military bases and bio labs have been reported by news outlets you would consider “legit”. The US Embassy took down their info on the bio labs the other day. So no big secret.
The alternative news is reporting the child trafficking take down. Its pretty much in the
Public domain that Putin has put out a deck of cards so to speak of bad guys that need to be taken out. I think he even said it himself.
Thanks for the reply. Told me all I need to know. 🙄
Yes it did answer your question. You just don’t want to believe it because you can’t quit being mind farmed by CNN and Fox Snooze. If its on TV it must be true. They would never lie or anything. 😆
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