It very nearly was though? I guess we were using the word conquer differently and your usage is probably the more accurate one. Is was thinking of occupying th

It very nearly was though? I guess we were using the word conquer differently and your usage is probably the more accurate one. Is was thinking of occupying the country and controlling it with force as opposed to marching to Kyiv and overthrowing the government. So I meant that occupying Ukraine with 200,000 soldiers was unrealistic and nothing that I think Putin would attempt. For overthrowing the government on the other hand this seems not to unreasonable and, as you point out, this might actually have been a close call. He also stated that his aim was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine - isn't that asserting control over the country? My interpretation is that demilitarization means going against increasingly stronger ties to NATO including weapon sales and denazification means going against increasing anti-Russian sentiments. No judgment about the validity of those points implied, I just think it is much more useful to find a interpretation that makes sense in the greater context than ignoring it as incoherent rumbling and making fun of it because Selenskyj is a jew. And I would agree, it is a form of control. I think he really wants Ukraine not in NATO, which is a kind of control, and because he could not get this any other way, he eventually tried to get there by trying to overthrow the government with force. But I am a bit wary of using very general terms like control, every international agreement is a form of control, albeit one where the involved parties agree. So we were probably again using the word control somewhat differently, you more like some control, I more like full control. And, as I said, I think he wants some control but not full control, he wants Ukraine outside of NATO but I don't think he wants Ukraine a part of Russia. I know this is probably not your intent, but this is the exact line all the pro-Russia propaganda guys use - Putin is an uwu smol bean who just feels very threatend and scared. I mean I am certainly not a pro-Russia propaganda guy, but I still think that this explanation is the most likely one. I don't know what exactly the pro-Russia propaganda guy version looks like and I would certainly not agree with all of it, for example, as you mentioned, nobody forced the eastern NATO members into NATO, but I consider the general idea of Russia being afraid of NATO expansion and this eventually leading to the war as the most likely explanation. Not at last because there is no credible alternative explanation with reasonable evidence for it.