Russia begins moving troops into eastern Ukraine

[hollodero]

(03-08-2022, 06:25 PM)Dill Wrote: Putin, I think, is not Putin anymore.

I hear that all the time. I, however, think that is the same old Putin, maybe dropping his mask a little. But the goal of his is hardly new, and neither are the means he's willing to use. He might just be running out of time, to fulfil his masterplan of first destabilizing the west and then just take the pieces he wants for the Czar empire within his lifespan.

Of course, it is all too big a goal and megolomaniac, but Putin always was that way as well. He thought the west and their alliances could be effectively destroyed by supporting some nationalistic right-wing nutjobs and some other slick manoeuvers. It was hubris, as is the current invasion part of his plan.

But I don't think he's any more out of his mind as George W. Bush was when he invaded Iraq while pretty much using the same propaganda lines. We go for Hitler and his weapons of mass destruction! Putin sees no difference there, just more effective instruments of power. Even if Selenski is quickly becoming the world's most beloved person and Saddam was undeniably a very bad man; that isn't the reason why the real global superpower invades one country and leaves the other be. Putin sees that in a cynical way, in a "well, you kill one mass murderer and shake the other's hand or aid them in a coup"-kind of way. You wanted to occupy Iraq for your own reasons, he wants to invade Ukraine for his own reasons, the only issue is having the power to do so, there's no ethical or moral difference and that's how the world just is.