Well it is a new arena to play in, and his handlers have more or less agreed that his domestic performance is not salvageable so anything different is worth a try.
Putin will stay in Russia. No reason for him to put himself at risk for arrest. He will consolidate his power in Russia.
I couldn't agree more, I was thinking the same thing. They are just sitting back all cozy and safe, just watching.
“Russia faces a crushing economic recession on the scale of its 1998 financial crisis, top analysts have predicted, with savings wiped out and the currency devastated,” the London Telegraph reports. “Sanctions imposed by western nations and their allies in response to the invasion of Ukraine will slash the size of the country’s economy by 11 percent in the coming months, according to forecasts by JP Morgan.”
Yeah but as long as he stays in power, no UN membership, no world trade, no anything. It might as well be N Korea. A hermit nation or whatever they call it.
The problem is the world still needs Russia's oil and natural gas not counting commodities Russia sells the entire world. Joe Biden will not end his war on US oil companies even if there is peace. So, the US and Europe will continue buying Russian oil and natural gas. Trade between Russia and the entire world will continue. There is no going around it. The world is not going to punish the entire Russian people just because of Putin. When war ends, people the world over will go on with their lives.
Oh definitely. Putin is the junior partner in that arrangement. Very junior. Now almost down at the village idiot level. Putin knows that China just wants Russia as another box to check off on their belt and road initiatve, and that China wants Russias ability to manage and get access to that whole central asia region which is wall to wall Uyghurs and areas that China does not do well with. Putin would like to get some more assurances of non-intervention by the west and then just snake around dealing with both the west and China rather than just become a vassal state of China. EXCEPT THAT HAS TOTALLY SHIITE THE BED NOW based on his mishandling of ukraine and China is his only option. I know it is obscure to mention again, but how Kazarkistan is handling itself here is a sign of things to come. They are/were a long time buddy of Vlad's and they control a lot of that central asia/uyghur region. BUT THEY DENIED PUTIN'S REQUEST TO SEND TROOPS TO UKRAINE, and have denouced it. OUCH. obscure maybe but OUCH. As I said back in the AFG withdrawal fiasco, the Americans and the Taliban will eventually work on the same team - although covertly- in that central asia area. The Taliban want to extend their considerable influence with the muslims there. And the Taliban are working with them to fight china on the uyghur resistance movement. That works fine for the US. And muslims in that area are not interested in being owned by either Russia or China- that would be the understatement of the day right there. But China was thinking, I will get conrol of Vlad and Vlad has control over Kazarkistan which has control over all that muslim shiite problems. AHH. No he does not. And the CIA will exacerbate problems in that area for them. Lots of those weapons we lost in AFG went straight to central asia and then over to the uyghur resistance in China. The Americans and the Taliban see how this could work, although will not be mentioned in public.
Soon to be joined by Sweden and Finland. As discussed, I hope Putin's goal is to increase Nato membership and influence in his region, because he is doing all the right things to achieve that.