“Historically, Russia is in a situation that quite often results in a pre emptive attack. “
It smells like the summer of ‘41.
It does smell like the summer of ‘41 (when Germany and Russia attacked Poland, the second part of which is denied in Russia).
What are called historical parallels are often wavy lines. There are (or maybe I should say, you can see in them) similarities that suggest parallels, but the future is never certain.
Here is my concern: Russia is a pathetic shell of a country. You can see this in its army. The army is full of drunks and incompetents, and it’s not very big either. Russia doesn’t have the money to maintain a large conventional force and, so, it could not overwhelm Ukraine. BUT, Russia has 6,000 nuclear weapons. These nuclear weapons are all holdovers from the Soviet era. Who knows how many of their missiles will launch properly from their silos? Even if only a fraction do, it will result in enormous losses in the democracies of the world. We will then turn Russia into a sheet of glass.
Russia isn’t led by people who believe in communism and think one day they will “bury you.” Russia is a kleptocracy. Putin and those around him (the ones he hasn’t yet killed or arrested) believe in the almighty ruble. Their greed has now made them willing to commit aggressive war and to commit war crimes such as the execution of civilians. This makes the threat of the use of nuclear weapons a credible.
Putin may overtake Hitler as the most evil man in history.