4 ms·
Putin is dumb or desperate (maybe trying to score a quick victory because of some more pressing matters). All he needed to do is to assemble a big enough chunk
by akomtu 5y ago
Putin is dumb or desperate (maybe trying to score a quick victory because of some more pressing matters). All he needed to do is to assemble a big enough chunk of his army at the borders, do some maneuvers from time to time, pepper it with threatening rhetoric to keep everyone stressed, but never attack. This "psychological siege" would tank the economy of Ukraine and he could demand progressively bigger concessions. The west would've only expressed a "strong disapproval", but ignored the situation otherwise.
- jacquesm 5y agoHindsight is ...
- paxys 5y agoWhat you described is exactly what Putin has been doing over the last decade, and the result was simply pushing Ukraine more towards the west and NATO, exactly the opposite of what he had intended.
- throwaway_4ever 5y agoYou have little idea how impossible it is to keep a large force deployed along the border like that full time. Huge untenable monetary cost and morale drops precipitously where intelligence communities know it's not a threat if they've been sitting there a year+.