Russia begins moving troops into eastern Ukraine

[Dill]

(02-27-2022, 11:59 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: Putin is certainly not scared of a Trump. At least not in the "I'm in a 18 to 22 ft square ring with Mike Tyson" sense. Maybe in the "I'm a woman locked in a room with nothing but Charlie Sheen and cocaine" sense. But simply having Trump in the White House was enough of a benefit. Deteriorating US relations with Ukraine, US actively undermining NATO allies, US actively lobbying for Russia to get their seat at the G8 back, US practically accepting Crimea staying with Russia, the list goes on.

Why would Putin bite the hand that was feeding him? It's impossible to tell what those 62% of people are thinking, but that would be my reasoning. This is also assuming that Putin even gave a shit about who the US head of state was.

Former CIA director John Brennan said something like the bolded on a Sunday news show this morning. 

I think that whoever was president likely played a minor role in Putin's decision to invade. 

Obama hit Russia with sanctions for Crimea, and Trump/Flynn wanted to roll them back.
Putin surely expected Biden would do at least what Obama did, while he could reasonably speculate Trump would have to be forced by Congress and his own Cabinet to do what Biden and Obama did willingly. When Biden was elected a "window was closing" perhaps.  (to borrow a phrase from Brennan). 

If Putin did perceive Biden as "weak" then he miscalculated, as most of the world and "the left" in the US rallies behind Biden and Ukraine.

To most who have been following Putin's writings and speeches over the last 14 years, there is evidence of a growing irrationality, which especially spills out in his talk of Ukraine not being a real country and lead by a Nazi.
The former US Ambassador, McFaul, has spoken of his increasing isolation from people and weeding out of advisors willing to speak truth to power. Reminiscent of Saddam Hussein in 1990.