1. There's no ban on the Russian language. 2. Yes? Maybe Russia shouldn't have been engaged in heavy-handed meddling in the country before that and the populat

1. There's no ban on the Russian language. 2. Yes? Maybe Russia shouldn't have been engaged in heavy-handed meddling in the country before that and the population wouldn't be pissed off at them and want the military base to go away. 3. Most indications are that Ukraine also reigned it in significantly. --------- > and accepting billions in military aid from USA (yes, USA was pumping a ton of weapons in Ukraine BEFORE the war, USA itself said so!) The war has been ongoing since 2014, with Russia arming the other side in the occupied areas. Again, if Russia didn't want Ukraine to be desperately trying to leap into bed with the West....it shouldn't have invaded it in 2014 and should have respected it's sovereignty. Quite frankly, they probably could have kept it neutral or pulled it back in orbit in the long run with disinformation campaigns like have worked elsewhere. -------- Beyond that, in your last paragraph, I think you are vastly, vastly, overstating the capacity of the Russian military. Which many did before the war - people believed Russia's claims of reforming and rearming their military, but is clearly off the mark now. Russia has committed pretty much the entirety of it's active ground forces to the campaign beyond the bare minimum to not leave the rest of the country totally undefended. It is watching massive quantities of it's men and equipment being destroyed, including many of it's best units and equipment. Much of what Russia is losing right now in every area of equipment is likely irreplaceable given the impact of sanctions and their inability to produce crucial parts in country. The premise that Russia is somehow "holding back" as some master strategy to look like complete idiots on the world stage and watch all their stuff get blown up first, is absurd. If they had larger stocks of intermediate-range missiles, they'd be using them and things would look like the US "shock & awe" of the Iraq War. They aren't because they can't. Not to mention that the Ukrainian Air Force still has a majority of it's aircraft flying and still has significant long-range anti-aircraft weapons active. Again, there is zero reason for Russia to not have destroyed all of this immediately....if they could. The obvious conclusion for the inability to do so is that they can't, not that they're waiting for some mysterious future time when they'll show their true power.