—> and his replacement puts an immediate end to the war.
Russian elections are May (I think I read).
Behind Putin, fighting to replace him are hardliners who want all out war.
“Behind Putin, fighting to replace him are hardliners who want all out war.”
Now try selling this to the average Russian who was never threatened by anything the Ukrainians were doing. There are exactly no Ukrainian forces occupying any part of antebellum Russia. Ukraine is not an existential threat to Russia.
So how do you sell the Russian people on launching into a second Great Patriotic War when they really don’t need to do this? Their kids are not at threat, nor are their homes, nor are their lands.
What’s their motivation?
What motivation we did see out of Russia was in the form of some 700,000 to 1,500,000 Russians who packed up and left the country when the war started.
They’re not going to come back to bleed for Putin’s imperial war.
Any other wannabe Czar will face the same circumstance or worse.