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I agree with most of this except maybe the "soviet empire" bit. His recent mentions of it (within the last 3 years) has been about how the fall of the Soviet Un

I agree with most of this except maybe the "soviet empire" bit. His recent mentions of it (within the last 3 years) has been about how the fall of the Soviet Union broke up the "historical russian" borders. For Ukraine specifically he compared himself to Russian Czar Peter the Great. A long time ago he lamented the fall of the Soviet Union which is especially hilarious as he was very likely involved in and vultured on the remains of it's demise. > Russia was drastically unprepared for a long war He, much like all of military officials in NATO at the time, assumed it was going to be over after they landed in Kiev. I also contest that the economy has suffered: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-economy-shows-solid-growth-despite-ukraine-war-sanctions-2024-08-28/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-economy-shows-s... The only exception is the pipeline, but then who could have expected that the US would sabotage an ally's ability to heat it's citizens? (assuming you ignore the last 100 years of american doctrine)

WillPostForFood 1y ago
4.6% growth, 10% inflation, and interest rates at 21% is not great.
- jajko 1y ago
  But its far from bottom of how much general russian population is willing to suffer before next bloody revolution happens. I don't talk about wealthy educated people from moscow or st petersburg (at least those that didn't leave), they are on purpose less targeted by whats happening, but rather permanently subjugated populations from poor regions whose lives changed comparatively little compared to cold war. Prigozhin had a last real chance, you could see how much common folks and most of army immediately aligned with them. But when they took hostages whole families of his mercenary group leaders, they backed down with predictable results. Interestingly not all aligned generals were executed, I expected bigger purge. Maybe he would be much worse though.
  - krainboltgreene 1y ago
    The Russian citizens approval of the war mirrors America’s own approval ratings of the invasion of Iraq as well.
- codedokode 1y ago
  The stores have food on the shelves and nobody is dying from hunger. As for GDP, Russian GDP year-to-year growth is 4.6% and USA GDP growth was 2.8%.
  - ahoka 1y ago
    Broken window fallacy.
navane 1y ago
The economy seems to be working still (numbers go up), because its a full on war-economy. You eat your country from the inside out, everything you produce explodes, and there's no way to transition out of it except by winning the war.
- krainboltgreene 1y ago
  Yes I said that.
os2warpman 1y ago
>He, much like all of military officials in NATO at the time, assumed it was going to be over after they landed in Kiev Military officials knew with no doubt whatsoever that the Ukrainians would fight like hell, and that they were better man-for-man, dollar-for-dollar, than the Russians. NATO officials' first-hand knowledge of the Ukrainian will to fight is why they begged their governments to allow shipments of materiel to Ukraine.
- krainboltgreene 1y ago
  https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-within-72-hours-if-russia-decides-to-invade-ukraine-sources https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-w... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/the-battle-for-kyiv-revisited-the-litany-of-mistakes-that-cost-russia-a-quick-win https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/the-battle-for... https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_221723.htm https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_221723.htm Ok
- somenameforme 1y ago
  As a peer mentioned, the 'Kiev will fall in 3 days' came from Mark Milley (US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time), not Russia. Beyond that, the decision was then near immediately made to lock all men of "fighting age" in the country, prevent them from leaving, and begin mass conscription. This is something that I hope, in the future, will be seen as no less barbaric than slavery. If people want to fight for their country, then they absolutely should. But if people don't want to fight for their country, then they should never be able to be forced to - it's a mockery of any notion of human rights. There's many things in this world I would be willing to die for, but a country? The notion feels quaint. Of course I realize this means that any country that does set aside such rights would have a tremendous military edge, but perhaps in such a world where human rights are held as more than a placard of convenience, the notion of dying for one's country might no longer seem so quaint.
  - sofixa 1y ago
    > There's many things in this world I would be willing to die for, but a country > human rights I see where there is a gap in your understanding. Ukrainians and the Ukrainian army aren't fighting for the abstract concept of a geopolitical entity (the country of Ukraine), they're fighting for their people, culture, language, existence, safety, freedom. Russia is proudly performing a genocide in Ukraine [1], and Putin has already stated that Ukrainians are just misguided Russians. What do you think a Russian occupation of Ukraine would look like? They're already kidnapping children [1] and indiscriminately murdering and torturing civilians. Yes, it was horrible that every single man of fighting age was conscripted. But desperate times force desperate measures. 1 - in case you've missed the news, Russia is indeed (without trying to hide it, it's all out in the open, their chief of staff and various ministers have talked about it) kidnapping people and specifically children from Ukraine. Those children are being educated to be good Russian citizens, which is genocide as per the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (to which Russia is a signatory), Article II (e). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-... https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-...

WillPostForFood 1y ago

4.6% growth, 10% inflation, and interest rates at 21% is not great.

jajko 1y ago
But its far from bottom of how much general russian population is willing to suffer before next bloody revolution happens. I don't talk about wealthy educated people from moscow or st petersburg (at least those that didn't leave), they are on purpose less targeted by whats happening, but rather permanently subjugated populations from poor regions whose lives changed comparatively little compared to cold war. Prigozhin had a last real chance, you could see how much common folks and most of army immediately aligned with them. But when they took hostages whole families of his mercenary group leaders, they backed down with predictable results. Interestingly not all aligned generals were executed, I expected bigger purge. Maybe he would be much worse though.
- krainboltgreene 1y ago
  The Russian citizens approval of the war mirrors America’s own approval ratings of the invasion of Iraq as well.
codedokode 1y ago
The stores have food on the shelves and nobody is dying from hunger. As for GDP, Russian GDP year-to-year growth is 4.6% and USA GDP growth was 2.8%.
- ahoka 1y ago
  Broken window fallacy.

navane 1y ago

The economy seems to be working still (numbers go up), because its a full on war-economy. You eat your country from the inside out, everything you produce explodes, and there's no way to transition out of it except by winning the war.

krainboltgreene 1y ago
Yes I said that.

os2warpman 1y ago

>He, much like all of military officials in NATO at the time, assumed it was going to be over after they landed in Kiev Military officials knew with no doubt whatsoever that the Ukrainians would fight like hell, and that they were better man-for-man, dollar-for-dollar, than the Russians. NATO officials' first-hand knowledge of the Ukrainian will to fight is why they begged their governments to allow shipments of materiel to Ukraine.

krainboltgreene 1y ago
https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-within-72-hours-if-russia-decides-to-invade-ukraine-sources https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-w... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/the-battle-for-kyiv-revisited-the-litany-of-mistakes-that-cost-russia-a-quick-win https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/the-battle-for... https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_221723.htm https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_221723.htm Ok
somenameforme 1y ago
As a peer mentioned, the 'Kiev will fall in 3 days' came from Mark Milley (US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time), not Russia. Beyond that, the decision was then near immediately made to lock all men of "fighting age" in the country, prevent them from leaving, and begin mass conscription. This is something that I hope, in the future, will be seen as no less barbaric than slavery. If people want to fight for their country, then they absolutely should. But if people don't want to fight for their country, then they should never be able to be forced to - it's a mockery of any notion of human rights. There's many things in this world I would be willing to die for, but a country? The notion feels quaint. Of course I realize this means that any country that does set aside such rights would have a tremendous military edge, but perhaps in such a world where human rights are held as more than a placard of convenience, the notion of dying for one's country might no longer seem so quaint.
- sofixa 1y ago
  > There's many things in this world I would be willing to die for, but a country > human rights I see where there is a gap in your understanding. Ukrainians and the Ukrainian army aren't fighting for the abstract concept of a geopolitical entity (the country of Ukraine), they're fighting for their people, culture, language, existence, safety, freedom. Russia is proudly performing a genocide in Ukraine [1], and Putin has already stated that Ukrainians are just misguided Russians. What do you think a Russian occupation of Ukraine would look like? They're already kidnapping children [1] and indiscriminately murdering and torturing civilians. Yes, it was horrible that every single man of fighting age was conscripted. But desperate times force desperate measures. 1 - in case you've missed the news, Russia is indeed (without trying to hide it, it's all out in the open, their chief of staff and various ministers have talked about it) kidnapping people and specifically children from Ukraine. Those children are being educated to be good Russian citizens, which is genocide as per the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (to which Russia is a signatory), Article II (e). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-... https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-...