4 Reasons Putin Is Already Losing in Ukraine (Oh, brother)

Time Magazine ^ | March 3, 2014 | Simon Shuster in Simferopol

[2ndDivisionVet]

Even a week ago, the idea of a Russian military intervention in Ukraine seemed far-fetched if not totally alarmist. The risks involved were just too enormous for President Vladimir Putin and for the country he has ruled for 14 years. But the arrival of Russian troops in Crimea over the weekend has shown that he is not averse to reckless adventures, even ones that offer little gain. In the coming days and weeks, Putin will have to decide how far he is prepared to take this intervention and how much he is prepared to suffer for it. It is already clear, however, that he cannot emerge as the winner of this conflict, at least not when the damage is weighed against the gains. It will at best be a Pyrrhic victory, and at worst an utter catastrophe. Here’s why:

At home, this intervention looks to be one of the most unpopular decisions Putin has ever made. The Kremlin’s own pollster released a survey on Monday that showed 73% of Russians reject it. In phrasing its question posed in early February to 1,600 respondents across the country, the state-funded sociologists at WCIOM were clearly trying to get as much support for the intervention as possible: “Should Russia react to the overthrow of the legally elected authorities in Ukraine?” they asked. Only 15% said yes — hardly a national consensus....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Remind me if Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Tojo or Mussolini gave a rat's rear-end about polls.

[Bobalu]

Maybe Obama can scare Putin with his pen and phone..lol

I just wonder how far Putin would have to go to get a serious response from our wimpy leader.

[Savage Beast]

"Audacity is 90 percent of the battle."
Karl Marx

"We dare not tempt them with weakness."
John Kennedy

[Timber Rattler]

These foreign policy morons clearly have forgotten Mao’s dictum that Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and that the Russians have lots of them and other big toys too that go BOOM!

[dennisw]

These liberal intellectuals live in a cotton candy world where war is done by clever words. Obungu demagoguery and buzzwords fool the lo-info intellectuals and hypnotize the sheeple....

However Vlad Putin is immune and works in the world of military force when he wants to

[JPX2011]

2nd Div’s post about mobile artillery in Ukraine:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3129311/posts

[Gaffer]

These butt suckers are coming out of the woodwork fantasizing about all sorts of things Obama could do, what Putin can’t do, why Obama doesn’t need to worry, why Obama’s acumen and intelligence will whup Putin, and on and on and on and on.

They are playing word games. Polls and ‘feelings’, worthless threats of “we’re not gonna go to Russia” or “we’ll boycott G8 or G20 or the International Tulip Fesitval - whatever”.

It is really childishly pathetic - just like what we have to call President here.

[McGruff]

[progunner]

Not to break the subject but has anything serious happened yet up there? I served in Cambodia with a man that was from Winchester. I haven’t been able to talk to him lately. WE were door gunners on the same medevac.

[gusopol3]

What’s next? “Obama Tricks Putin Into Invading Ukraine.”

[2ndDivisionVet]

Or Poland? Alaska? France? Detroit?

[wolf78]

Remind me if Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Tojo or Mussolini gave a rat's rear-end about polls.

I think there are two sides to this coin. Is Putin's Russia dangerous? Absolutely.

But many here on FR make the mistake of interpreting Putin's actions as sign of strength (because it makes for a nice juxtapposition: Strong Putin, weak Obama). Yet I believe there is some truth to the TIME article. In many ways Russia is weak.

Putin was so very afraid of a simply trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine, so very afraid of western market economies that he is willing to kill and go to war over it.

If it wasn't blatantly obvious before, it should be now: Putinism is morally bankrupt. Who would want to ally oneself with such a pathetic system? Didn't someone say with regard to Ukraine: "I'd boycott Russian goods if I could think of a single thing they made besides the rest of the world depressed."?

I'm not saying that Russian military isn't to be feared. It is. But at the same time the ruble is going down the toilet. I'm just saying that one should probably see Russia as it really is: morally weak and technologically outdated.

P.S.: Even the Russian government prefers foreign cars over Ladas: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1977004-in-russia-earning-an-olympic-medal-at-sochi-means-a-mercedes-and-pile-of-cash

[Popman]

Wow...betcha Putin is really concerned about polling...

I know for a fact all the former dictators in Russia watched the polling every week to adhere to the peoples will.../S

It’s hard to believe these “journ’O’lists are so stupid...to believe their own pablum..

[2ndDivisionVet]

Here's what $100 bought ten years ago for me.

[gusopol3]

Russia under Putin:weak; Obama under America: weaker.

[Louis Foxwell]

The Russian republic cannot exist without the Ukraine. If mother Russia allows the Ukraine to move into the European Union it will spell the end of the Russian republic. That is precisely what is at stake for Putin and all Russian nationalists. Putin’s actions are about the survival of Russia as a world power.

[sergeantdave]

State-sponsored commie media Time trying to spin a victory for Obuma and Kerry.

[bert]

But...... possession is 0.9 of the law

Vlad has now once again secured the port and the dream of Peter the Great

[TalBlack]

I don’t have the sense that many believe Putin is strong, rather that he is taking advantage of a world with a weak America. Putin is motivated and decisive in the face of a Coward president.