Otoh, one can only imagine how his rivals in the Kremlin see this if it's true.
Putin is the type of man to whom failure is worse than death. So what will he resort to in order to avoid that label?
I suspect that's not true. I think Putin is extremely invested in the material: his personal power, wealth... and life. There are many reports he has become paranoid; he's terrified of covid (immunosupressed from chemo?), extreme security to the point of isolation. This says to me a man who fears and resents dying. He hates failure because it undermines his power.
Cool, maybe try understanding the significance of what you're responding to before bothering me with this irrelevant tripe.
Nor, it seems, either of the ones you think I'm making.
Reminds me of the phenomenon in which some family member of Kim Jong Un is declared murdered by some western newspaper only for that family member to turn up living a few weeks later.
More complete dross.
And yet this is sort of bollocks.
As well as, of course, the fact that Russia hasn't actually ever been attacked by Ukraine. In fact, the territory of the Russian Federation has not been attacked or even under credible threat from a foreign country for the entire duration of its conflict with Ukraine.
As I've indicated a few times in the past, I legitimately have no idea what you're actually trying to communicate most of the time. Usually, I assume you're just banging the "US bad" drum, but your recent obsession with insisting Ukraine is a solid nazi dictatorship had me guessing that maybe you're trying to remove the moral imperative to stop Russia from the discussion somehow. Apparently, I was wrong, and you're just banging the regular "US bad drum" with an extra couple notes about how Ukraine isn't sovereign? Or maybe that Ukraine is a puppet state and therefore the atrocities committed against it by Russia are excusable? No idea. Sometimes I think you drunk-post.
So why isn't he there? Seriously. Zelensky is still in Ukraine. He doesn't need to be. Most world leaders would have likely already left, and very few people would blame them for leading from a place of safety. Putin himself has security three-deep around him at all times when he isn't hiding in a bunker - and he isn't even the one being invaded. Zelensky could have bailed at any time, so why hasn't he?
That argument hinges on the premise that accepting Ukraine as a sovereign nation is somehow offensive to Russia. It hinges on the belief that Russia is a special little flower who deserves a sphere of influence full of countries who hate and despise Russia. It hinges on the belief that we're still in the 18th century and that no dog can bark in eastern Europe without first having received permission from the Kremlin.
You know, if this was remotely true, Putin would have to be incredibly stupid to fall for such a blatant trap. What a statesmen
Yeah, the other option-- uhrm, not invading-- would've been just terrible.
But the point the weird left would make is that the security of countries such as the Baltic states, Ukraine, Georgia etc. is irrelevant and none of our business. If Russia chooses to threaten, coerce and invade their neighbours, the West's response should be nothing at all, because to do anything is Western imperialism and threatening poor, defenceless Russia.
For Russia it would have meant a continual weakening of their security situation as more and more weapons and training flow into Ukraine and either eventual subjugation by the United States or very likely a war later on that would be more difficult to win and even more likely to escalate into a nuclear apocalypse. They were losing the 'peace' (such as it was). Ultimately what this war is about is whether Russia is weak enough for the United States and NATO to bully it with impunity. All sides seem to agree that, no, it isn't, and Ukraine is paying the price. It is a price that the US and NATO deem worth it as they are still insisting that Zelensky be the one to negotiate any peace while at the same time not empowering Zelensky to negotiate on their behalf an end to sanctions or other conditions which the Russians want in exchange for peace. "Imperial annexation" is the only result that will satisfy the West because it will mean that Ukraine has indeed fought to the last Ukrainian and maximized the damage to Russia.
No the war is about whether Russia's neighbors should be weak enough for Russia to bully with impunity. And everyone except Russia agrees that they shouldn't be, because Russia has historically been awful to any country unfortunate enough to be its neighbor, a tradition Putin is dead set on restoring.
