mtutiger

👀

Yet another reminder of how much different the world looks one week on.

At a minimum, assuming they do ultimately take the country, they will have to conduct a long term and costly occupation to support whatever puppet government they install... because the moment they leave, that government is at risk of falling. I really don't get why this was such a hard thing to grasp ahead of this invasion. What percentage speak Russian, or even whether they have voted for Pro-Russian candidates in the past, isn't necessarily synonymous with the percentage who would support their country being invaded by Russia. Or be supportive of a Russian puppet leadership. Putin clearly got high off his own supply in this regard. But a lot of outside observers did as well.

This is a good reality check. Still a lot on the line going forward

Another 'wow' moment

"Nice city ya got there... be a shame if this space station landed on it"

lol

Wow.

Yep. A lot of Putin's fate lies in domestic internal politics, but it would seem that Xi has a lot of cards here... with how isolated Putin's government is, a move away from Russia by China would be the end of Putin

It's not just the people in the streets, It's people in the chain of command. Somebody would have to ultimately push that button. It's probably more saber rattling than anything else, but obviously it's very concerning nonetheless.

He raised readiness of their deterrence forces (ie. Nukes). I dont think it will go in that direction, but he's threatening and wants the Ukranians/west to waver. Scary as it is, it telegraphs weakness. Not strength

Putin's comments this morning can be taken as an acknowledgement that this engagement is not going according to plan and that Russia very well could end up losing.

Really wonder what Xi is thinking about all of this. We know the public facing statements, but internally, I wonder if there's a point where the negatives of looking the other way (if not allying) with Putin start to outweigh the positives.

Wow....

Setting aside how despicable the comment is, I can't imagine sitting watching the last four days and then coming away with the impression that Putin is the smart one here