I see you're getting a lot of pushback on this. IMO, this guy knows what he's talking about. Not in the sense that it's absolutely correct. In the sense that th

I see you're getting a lot of pushback on this. IMO, this guy knows what he's talking about. Not in the sense that it's absolutely correct. In the sense that this is what Russian Nationalists actually believe and think. Keep in mind, the Russians that think like this mostly only speak Russian. If they speak any other language also, they choose to spend most of their time in the Russian-language world. They consider Russia their motherland, and aren't about to leave to nations they consider foreign and hostile just because things might be tough for a while. They're not listening to Western news even when they were allowed to, and they don't know or care much what Westerners think. Are such types of people "ignorant", "uncultured", and whatever else you might call them? Kind of, yeah. But what nation can survive long without any such people, especially in the face of the invasions they've faced in the last few hundred years. These are the people who are Putin's base and make up most of the Russian elite. They're also the ones that will decide whether he stays in power or goes. They really do think that those uppity Ukrainians had it coming, don't know their place, have no business considering themselves a country and cozying up to Nato, etc. I'm pretty sure if he does end up getting the boot, it will be because his backers are horrified at how much he let the once-mighty Red Army degrade and how vulnerable he let them become to the West, not because they realized that Ukraine deserves to be independent after all. The trouble is, Putin and his crew spewed a little too much propaganda, and believed it a little too hard. They talked up how Ukraine was a bunch of drug-addled half-assed wannabe Nazis to themselves so hard that they actually believed it. They went in with a plan based around those assumptions. The trouble is, it seems they were quite wrong and are getting their asses handed to them. So what are they gonna do now? I don't think that pulling out and going home with their tail between their legs is gonna be a good option for Putin. Beats me what they'll actually do, but I'm afraid it won't be pretty. If you really want to understand things, you need to understand that it's a different culture over there. They really do believe this stuff. The few Westernized people who think it's all terrible are a tiny, unrepresentative minority. Don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone everywhere is really just like us, with maybe just a couple of weird assholes in charge for some reason. Our enemies are sincere. America has made such assumptions more than once in our past, and got our asses handed to us over it. Now it's Russia's turn, at least as long we we don't screw things up even more than they did.