Political reasons from a dictatorship are mainly the priorities of the dictator himself. Putin's been attacking neighbors for a long time. There's been a miscal

Political reasons from a dictatorship are mainly the priorities of the dictator himself. Putin's been attacking neighbors for a long time. There's been a miscalculation that it would have been an easy military operation, but we all know flash war is always a fantasy of the attacker. The reason, Putin has said it plainly many times: he wants to be responsible for the reunification of what he thinks he's Russia, because he feels getting old but still strong enough. He cannot take (and therefore Russia, not viceversa) NATO, EU, and democracies getting closer, and making "green" plans that would relegate his Country to the "regional power" state. So he wants the world to know that he will fight for a comeback, doesn't matter how many lives will be taken - because he wants to "make Russia great again". Then he proceeds with making friends with other dictatorships in the world to fight the "West". The problem he's not facing, is that apart from gas oil and tanks, his people rely on import for everything else, and sees the relative wealth going away again. And when you suddenly have no money and freedom, you can lie to yourself much, but at a certain point, resentment grows against the government.