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Ukraine ping

PIF: [FWIW: There was a rumor that if Putin came to Belarus to met with Lukashenko, he would never return to Russia ...]

Kamil Galeev is a young Volga Tatar who has been a significant presence on Twitter with respect to the Kremlinology of the Special Military Operation. He sees Lukashenko as a contender for Tsardom. Let’s say he manages the political equivalent of 18 holes-in-one and becomes the big cheese in Russia (that presumably includes Belarus), after pushing Putin aside. The question is whether he’d see the Ukraine operation as something he should continue, or a complete waste of resources.

Galeev believes that the problem with Russia is structural. Its rulers even after the Romanovs were butchered are basically Tsars in all but name. So whether Lukashenko, Navalny or any of Putin’s pet siloviki waiting in the wings replaces Putin as boss of bosses, Russia’s imperial tendencies will not change.

Yeltsin tends to be portrayed as this democrat - a man of the people. In reality, he was just a putschist, a dictator, a king in all but name, who levered himself into power using the ideological current of the moment, just like his Bolshevik predecessors.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1538523966914052096.html

Yeltsin said, during a summit in Istanbul:

https://icds.ee/en/clinton-archives-confirm-the-need-for-nato-enlargement/
[I am a European. I live in Moscow, Moscow is in Europe and I like it. You can take all the other states and provide security to them. I will take Europe and provide them security. Well, not I. Russia will.]

He figured Bill Clinton was a soft touch. He was right, but even Slick Willy wasn’t born yesterday.