TLDR: There was a recent shakeup of the Russian top brass and an economist was put in a top job. He thinks the economist has told Putin that this can not be sustained given Russia’s capability and Western promised support. Putin might actually be listening and why he wants to settle on current control.
Good assessment. The only water I’d throw on your fire is that authoritarians are incredibly reactive to personalities and presentations.
It’s possible new faces literally changed Putin’s mind on things he had already heard, simply because the message was coming from someone new.
Good water thrown. I only want to add the assesment of authoritarians is too rigid.
They are people, and therefore, just like all of us are fallible and susceptible to great personalities and presentations, like you stated.
The world shouldn’t treat these people as somehow different and apart from the rest of us. It gives them a mystique they don’t deserve. The same can often be said for the famous or wealthy.
mass-murderer vs not-a-murderer … huh I guess we should both get reduced 50-year jail terms !
Putin must be forced to withdraw from Ukraine as established in 1994 and Russian territories surrounding Ukraine become DMZs manned by UN watchtowers and UN controls.
UN has become a farce and I dread another League of Nations levels of failure in the near future.
I don’t see how what you’re saying is related to the above two comments. But I largely agree with what you’ve said.
Although, i’ve no reason to wish you such a lengthy, or any jail term, and i believe jail, even 50 years, is too soft a punishment for Putin for all he’s done.
Calling someone normal isn’t an insult to the rest of us, its an insult to the person in ‘power’. They have found themselves in a position to make a real difference in this world and acted on their worst, and boringly common, self interested instincts.
You’re right in what you say about the UN, and unfortunately after the military debacles of it’s early years, and the unwillingness to participate in its actions by countries in the pursuit of their own self interests, Russia a notable example, it may go the way of the League.
An exceptionally bad loss of what could be an extremely effective institution in this Century, if countries like my own were to redouble their efforts to support it and recognise it’s importance.