Abandon ship starts in Russia: https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ins-special-representative-source-2022-03-23/ Chubais is/was the highest ranked (and long term) advisor from Putin. Ran to Turkey and will never go back to Russia. Chubais was one of the most high-profile liberals associated with the Russian government.
Placed my post in this thread as it is more logical: A journalist once asked the Coca Cola company if they were not overspending on publicity/marketing. The answer was: yes we overspend at least 30%, but the problem is that we don't know where the overspending exactly is situated. Overspending is cheaper than cutting on the wrong place and lose marketshare and $$$. Overspending is cheaper than underspending till certain limits. Same applies to military. We start from past experience to decide where and what to spend. Only after a new war, an evaluation can be made and it becomes clear what was good spending and what was a waste. It is always difficult to estimate what the exact power and options are of the enemy, so we have to guess a bit to decide what to spent on what. It would be interesting to review this post in the actual situation. Maybe soon it will become clear if spending was a waste or not. Let's hope we will not find it out, because to find it out horrible things should happen. US-Russia confrontation... Don't forget that Trump wanted to reduce or even leave the NATO. No wonder Putin was his best friend. Trump does what Putin does in Russia: lie and manipulated people. Trump tells all the time FAKE NEWS, just like Putin does. Reelection of Trump will have very serious consequences for America's safety. I hope that the brainless Republicans understand that. But probably they will react as the millions of brainwashed Russians that support Putin. Imaging Trump would be now President, that would make things much easier for Putin. Maybe the US (and the Western world) escaped a huge drama by electing Senile Joe. Senile Joe is better than mad/corrupt Trump who would probably forbid to help in the fight against the Russians. Trump wanted the US to leave NATO, weakening both the US and EU. Putin helped Trump as much as possible to be reelected. The timing was perfect and fitted in his plan to invade Ukraine. We were lucky that Putin's plan did not succeed. I hope Americans realize they need Europe as well as Europe needs them (economically and military). Europeans are at this moment damaging the Russian army and dying for that. Not Americans. And to fight the China/Russia armies, the US can better have Europe on their side than Europe on the sidelines. Or even worse: Europe invaded by Russia. Europe adds about 400 million people to the US side, not a small detail. Economically (how many billions, US companies make in profit each year in the EU market?) but also military.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russians-retreating-to-eastern-ukraine-mgn36bzpg Russians ‘retreating’ to eastern Ukraine Kremlin will focus on Donbas after setbacks Russia has given its strongest indication yet that it will scale back its military ambitions in Ukraine to focus on fighting for control of the east after suffering setbacks across the country. Moscow said it would “focus our core efforts” to achieve the “main goal, the liberation of Donbas” in the east in an apparent admission that attacking Ukraine on multiple fronts was no longer achievable. The announcement followed a series of defeats for Russia around Kyiv and came as Ukrainian forces showed they were able to launch counterattacks in the north and south. One BBC reporter on the ground described the attack this morning as though 'Ukraine was not just fighting back but winning' https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...in-news-russia-ukraine-invasion-sanctions-spt Vladimir Putin in trouble as he is warned: 'I don't think Russia can win in Ukraine' VLADIMIR PUTIN could find himself in political danger as an expert warned "I don't think Russia can win in Ukraine". https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/russia-hints-at-retreat/ Kremlin hints at retreat as Russian commander 'killed by own troops' "We are at the culmination point, the high-tide moment for Russians," "They have run out of energy. "They have lost more people and almost as much equipment in 24 days than they lost in Afghanistan in 9 years and 9 months." There goes the second strongest army in the world, losing a war against "a country with the GDP of a shithole African country". Kick these Russian monsters out of the country and then take on to Belarus, as the majority of the Belarus army is por Ukrainian. Liquidate Lukasjenko and free all prisoners. Sanctions should continue till Putin and his oligarchs are "completelly deneutrailized".
The strategic objective of the Russian invasion has surely always been the partition of Ukraine. This creates a puppet buffer eastern Ukraine between Russia and NATO, plus a non-NATO hostage state in the remaining western Ukraine. If Putin had conquered the whole of the country he would have ended up with NATO tanks along a Russian border, something he has expressed to the world and his supporters that Russia should not have to face in Ukraine. He is not crazy, so we can expect he will follow his own logic. It its probably preferable to Putin that the western Ukrainians retain Kiev so it will not be a rallying point for the re-unification of all Ukraine, in the way that Berlin was for partitioned Germany. Of course, if you want to capture and keep a 1-mile deep border zone, you probably have to capture a 5-mile deep zone and then pull back at various points where its tactically advantageous.
Putin clearly showed the last yeras that the Russian Empirethat was lost, should be reinstalled by him. He wants to be the name that in eternity will be linked with the rebuild of new Russian Empire. He wanted to quickly take Ukraine like he took Crimea. But he made a huge mistake. He clearly said he wanted to install a puppet Russian controlled government in Kiev (like he had before, but lost), and Ukraine should be "part" (read: slaves) of the new Russian Empire. Ukraine should be demilitarized (so without any weapons). Putin already used the same tactics before in Ossetia, Chechnya ... Putin already started to install Russian mayors in every occupied city, and was trying to install Rouble to replace the Ukrainian Hryvna. So he clrealy wants to take ALL of Ukraine. But he is losing the war if he continues as he runs out of money. So to avoid a total defeat, he changes his explanation as he was on the road to become eternally being linked to the total destruction of Russia. In Russia there is huge amount of people who want Putin out. Only terror and intimidation can still avoid the total defeat of Putin. All over Europe Russians don't feel safe anymore as they get more and more attacked by agressive people. All this thanks to Putin. As long as Putin lives the problem will continue and The West will never be safe. Do you really think Putin will stop his war? He never will, and the nuclear threath will always be there. That's why Putin should be eliminated for 101%. Only after that there might be a possibility to have peace. Till that moment all sanctions should be continue. Making Putin sign a document will not work, we have seen than the last few months. He was never going to invade Ukraine... History repeats itself.