> Put any European country in the spot Russia's in, they would collapse in weeks. No European country would ever be in the spot Russia's in, because they would

> Put any European country in the spot Russia's in, they would collapse in weeks. No European country would ever be in the spot Russia's in, because they wouldn't start such a pointless war of conquest for some autocrat's pride. They used to back in the 19th century, because that's when many of them were still autocracies. Russia is the only remaining colonial power in Europe, and one of the few remaining dictatorships, and its performance is not exactly a compelling argument. Russia is the problem. Autocracies are not efficient. They are unbelievably wasteful on several levels. Not only are the Russian government and military inefficient, their goals are also wasteful: we're seeing entire countries destroyed, thousands of people killed, billions wasted on weapons, billions more in houses and infrastructure destroyed, because of one autocrat.