Ukraine Thread

[Gilrandir]

Putin is a chess player. Simply trying to consolidate the gain in the time frame he has left before his own people are fed up with affairs as they are.

His people are being successfully bombarded by his propaganda, so as far as I can judge (from what I see on Russian TV) they (well, the vast majority of them) don't blame him in anything. They still believe that it is the USA-Russia affair, so the USA (or broadly speaking the West) is guilty of it all as it ultimately aims to destroy Russia. Thus, they are to weather it and it can be done by tightening their belts and ranks around the leader. The saddest part of it all is that the two closely related peoples have now become enemies and even the lulling of the conflict is not likely to change this enmity in the foreseeable future.

He won't go much further after this -- because he needs to consolidate, not because of much of what the West is doing.

Yet, I believe, that if the West announces of lethal weapons being given to Ukraine it will bring about more aggressive warfare on Russia's part.