Nebs Sez
Putinka is Xi's bitch now. And he has his eyes on Central Asia...and Siberia.
The population of the Russian Federation is barely 40% Russian. The rest are the various ethnic minorities that Imperial Russia conquered. The Russian Federation is the 'rump state' of the Soviet Union, which in turn was the inheritor of the old Russian Imperial State.
Putin is correct in seeing a vibrant and independent Ukraine as a threat. It serves as a model for all those conquered ethnic minorities. He had to try and crush that. But he has failed and accelerated the final collapse of the remains of the leftover Russian Imperial State. And his own fatal fall from power.
One great irony is that Ukraine's pernicious corruption was drowning Zelenskyy. His approval rating was in the 20'a just before 2/24/22. But Putin has not only made him a hero, but given him the power to root out corruption with a ruthlessness he could not have previously gotten away with.
The population of the Russian Federation is barely 40% Russian. The rest are the various ethnic minorities that Imperial Russia conquered. The Russian Federation is the 'rump state' of the Soviet Union, which in turn was the inheritor of the old Russian Imperial State.
Putin is correct in seeing a vibrant and independent Ukraine as a threat. It serves as a model for all those conquered ethnic minorities. He had to try and crush that. But he has failed and accelerated the final collapse of the remains of the leftover Russian Imperial State. And his own fatal fall from power.
One great irony is that Ukraine's pernicious corruption was drowning Zelenskyy. His approval rating was in the 20'a just before 2/24/22. But Putin has not only made him a hero, but given him the power to root out corruption with a ruthlessness he could not have previously gotten away with.