"Vladimir Putin’s failed strategy" Topic

"As the first 250 days of Russia's war in Ukraine have proved again, the logic of strategy is paradoxical. It has never been linear, as in the Roman Si vis pacem para bellum: if you want peace prepare for war. Because the logic of strategy is paradoxical, it is very easy to be wrong in matters of peace and war, and very hard to be right.

That was the first lesson of the war: Putin collided head-on with the paradoxical logic of strategy. Military alliances need a shared enemy. Once the Cold War ended, Nato became weaker and weaker, because diverse interests — including the desire to spend less — naturally arose once there was no enemy to threaten all. Nato became so weak that in Europe there was talk of a military alliance without the US. Only irrelevant Leftists said this straight out, but many mainstream politicians across Europe kept hinting that the time had come for Nato to be replaced by a European Union alliance…"

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Armand

I read that NATO gave Putin an award when Finland and Sweden joined: Salesman of the Year

'European Alliance' probably main reason for Russian Agression.
EU pushing too hard for 'influence'.
Hence Brexit! UK does NOT need that sort of stupid!
NATO… keep it on!

I read that NATO gave Putin an award when Finland and Sweden joined: Salesman of the Year

That is abolutely right.
But it get's even weirder.
Vladimir Putin is a double agent, an unsuspecting sock puppet installed by the perfidious Albion with the help of the 'Company'.
Tony Blair convinced Clinton that it would be easy to influence that notorious drunkard Yeltsin to make a mediocre bureaucrat with latent megalomania his successor as president of the Russian Federation.
Yeltsin and those clowns considered elite in Russia thought Putin would lead Russia into calmer waters but the Brits knew better.
He who would sooner or later lead the whole country to ruin.

Of course in the unavoidable Hollywood flic 'The Manchurain Promotion' the role of the British will be replaced by the USA.
And that is a fact.

Good God Arjuna, I love your posts!

"Of course in the unavoidable Hollywood flic 'The Manchurain Promotion' the role of the British will be replaced by the USA."

A gender challenged American, coming out of closet, teenage genius, traumatic back story, angst caused by global warming and whose only friend in the whole world is a rescue dog named Doofus.

Wait … ? Putin had a strategy ?

Ha!…

Armand

My pleasure, you're welcome.

My pleasure, you're welcome.
Give me half an hour with one of those fancy new AI text generators and we'll have a script.

So, thriller, tragedy, satire or comedy?
We could, of course, cover all four genres and make four films/serials and market them on different streaming channels.
With different political flavours.
I know no shame.

We could, of course, cover all four genres and make four films/serials and market them on different streaming channels.
With different political flavours.
I know no shame.

To old school, live stream is where it's at. If you know no shame pick your target demographic, load your script with trigger words and fantasist bull and watch the subs roll in…

And the EU the main reason for Russian aggression? H'mm, fairly certain Putin mentioned NATO a heck of lot more than the EU in reference to Ukraine.

Though Putin allegedly has a weird obsession with the UK…(Apparently an Osprey author with a new book to promote)
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Apparently an Osprey author with a new book to promote

His new one under the pen name Mark Galleotti is about to be released shortly, although not by Osprey this time: 'Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine'.

'Ukraine couldn't do it alone. It would need lots of help from the West, but also from one other person. In 2022, it became clear what Kyiv's secret weapon would be: Vladimir Putin.'
from Putin's Wars, p.343

Mark Galeotti at Osprey

Can not be otherwise, no one who is not himself a Russian, can write so knowledgeable about them…

although not by Osprey this time

Oops, I see, it is from Osprey, never mind.
Nevertheless a knowledgable and recommendable book.

From Galleotti:

That same official recounted tales of reports being edited and briefers carefully coached to ensure they told Mr Putin not what he needed to hear, but what he wanted to hear. Hence his misplaced belief in February that his spies could so deeply penetrate and destabilise the Ukrainian government that the country could be seized within a fortnight by a relatively limited military operation.

Like other authoritarian rulers before him. Any strategy based on false beliefs will be in trouble.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Meet the mercenary army boss ‘worse than Putin' who could be Russia's next leader

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Armand

Where is this "Merc" leader going to get troops & equipment ? Enough to defeat the Ukraine.

Russians furious at release of former convict Wagner Group fighters back into society

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Could Chechnya's ‘Dark Horse' Emerge As Kremlin King-Maker? – Analysis

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Armand

Putin must be/is surrounded by "yes men". The Russian intel failure to decide to attack the Ukraine will go down in history as one of the biggest errors in the modern times, both in the 20th & 21st Centuries.