So it sounds like your analysis of the situation is that it is short sighted and Putin is simply a Megalomaniac attempting to hold onto power, would you say that is an accurate summary?
Yes, and worse than it appears in what I wrote. What is driving Putin right now is a demented vision of something called Russkiy Mir, or Russian World, wherein Russia reclaims its world glory, not least by reclaiming every square inch of land that was ever Russian. A lot of this comes from his close advisor Aleksandr Dugin’s neo-fascist book Foundations of Geopolitics, and it puts every country surrounding Russia at risk, especially Poland and the Baltic states, because Putin’s publicly acknowledged end goal is to sit as king over all of them in a new, reunified Russian kingdom.
Also, he’s not just running out of educated people, he’s running out of people, period. There are roughly 14 million in Moscow, 4 million in St. Petersburg, and 145 million in Russia total, leaving out Crimea. Again, outside the cities, they are spread out across a vast land mass. By contrast, in the US right now there are over double that, 333 million spread out over the lesser land mass of the southern portion of North America. Not only does he have very few men, he has a huge area for people to hide in, and a significant portion of his own populace that grew up under Soviet rule who are willing to hide anyone they love. Russians run the best black markets in the world, IMO, and now men of conscription age are a part of that. It’s a battle Putin will not win.
It’s also one of the reasons Putin grabbed Crimea, and is now trying to get Ukraine: to literally steal the children. This is not hyperbole, it is fact. Russia is now a failing country. Even if the war were to stop today, Putin’s misuse of his populace to chase his dreams of a pimped up new Russia has ensured that there simply won’t be the population needed to support a thriving economy.
And I won’t go into how poor Russia is because Putin’s entire goal the whole time he has been in ANY public office, including mayor, has been to fleece the people. He stole millions in food aid from hungry Petersburgians in the 1990s and hasn’t stopped since. He and his oligarch cronies are richer than most living people can imagine, and it’s all on the backs of poor Russians. If you’re interested, Alexei Navalny and the Bellingcat folks have done an amazing series of videos about Putin’s theft (turn on English subs) of Russia’s natural resources, to sell them for profit and divert the income through his close circle of cronies.
So yeah. He is a madman. In So. Many. Ways. Like, lay-off-the-crack-pipe-already crazy. I could write about it for hours, lol. Thank you for asking, because it was actually good to think about it as a whole picture for once. I am pleased when anyone wants to learn more about this conflict, because I believe it is going to shape not just the east, but the west for decades to come, no matter how it turns out.
Yes, and worse than it appears in what I wrote. What is driving Putin right now is a demented vision of something called Russkiy Mir, or Russian World, wherein Russia reclaims its world glory, not least by reclaiming every square inch of land that was ever Russian. A lot of this comes from his close advisor Aleksandr Dugin’s neo-fascist book Foundations of Geopolitics, and it puts every country surrounding Russia at risk, especially Poland and the Baltic states, because Putin’s publicly acknowledged end goal is to sit as king over all of them in a new, reunified Russian kingdom.
Also, he’s not just running out of educated people, he’s running out of people, period. There are roughly 14 million in Moscow, 4 million in St. Petersburg, and 145 million in Russia total, leaving out Crimea. Again, outside the cities, they are spread out across a vast land mass. By contrast, in the US right now there are over double that, 333 million spread out over the lesser land mass of the southern portion of North America. Not only does he have very few men, he has a huge area for people to hide in, and a significant portion of his own populace that grew up under Soviet rule who are willing to hide anyone they love. Russians run the best black markets in the world, IMO, and now men of conscription age are a part of that. It’s a battle Putin will not win.
It’s also one of the reasons Putin grabbed Crimea, and is now trying to get Ukraine: to literally steal the children. This is not hyperbole, it is fact. Russia is now a failing country. Even if the war were to stop today, Putin’s misuse of his populace to chase his dreams of a pimped up new Russia has ensured that there simply won’t be the population needed to support a thriving economy.
And I won’t go into how poor Russia is because Putin’s entire goal the whole time he has been in ANY public office, including mayor, has been to fleece the people. He stole millions in food aid from hungry Petersburgians in the 1990s and hasn’t stopped since. He and his oligarch cronies are richer than most living people can imagine, and it’s all on the backs of poor Russians. If you’re interested, Alexei Navalny and the Bellingcat folks have done an amazing series of videos about Putin’s theft (turn on English subs) of Russia’s natural resources, to sell them for profit and divert the income through his close circle of cronies.
So yeah. He is a madman. In So. Many. Ways. Like, lay-off-the-crack-pipe-already crazy. I could write about it for hours, lol. Thank you for asking, because it was actually good to think about it as a whole picture for once. I am pleased when anyone wants to learn more about this conflict, because I believe it is going to shape not just the east, but the west for decades to come, no matter how it turns out.
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