Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 21 2022 11:08am)

With Putin picking up failure after failure recently, and with the rumors about his bad health, I'd be very surprised if there were no succession plans in place by now. It would, however, be a huge mistake to assume that his successor would be a drunken buffoon like Yeltsin or a pro-Western guy like Nawalny. Chances are high that Putin's successor would be an even more hawkish ultra-nationalist.

Quote (bogie160 @ 21 Sep 2022 18:01)

I think it would have to be someone already within his inner circle. But as far as coups go, I think that's wishful thinking. I read an interview some time back from a Russian billionaire responding to the "pressure billionaires to pressure Putin" campaign. His response was that the billionaires were already toothless, and anyone storming into the Kremlin to tell Putin "knock it off" was as good as dead.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 21 2022 07:59am)

Since he came to power more than 20 years ago, Putin has always stated that he considers the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century and wants to undo it. He has also always been stating that he strives for an "Eurasion Union from Lisbon to Wladivostok", with the subtext clearly being that this union should be dominated by Russia the same way the former Soviet Union was.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 21 2022 07:59am)

Russia having secured Crimea and its naval base in Sewastopol was the status quo before the outbreak of this recent war. If that had truly been Putin's main goal, he had already achieved it and didn't need to invade the rest of Ukraine. Without the invasion, there wouldn't have been massive weapon sales from the West to Ukraine, and without Western weapons, Ukraine would never ever have had the power or resources to take back Crimea or Donbass from Russia...

Quote (kusotarre1 @ 21 Sep 2022 18:51)

What was done to Russia with the dissolution of the USSR was undeniably a huge tragedy. It was the greatest 'peacetime' fall in life expectancy to ever occur. It immiserating millions of people. There are videos of kids recounting how they prostitute themselves for bread, in the 1990s. That doesn't mean Putin wants to restore the USSR, it only means he wants to restore the economic and military power of Russia itself so that it has the tools of sovereignty in a world where America still, maniacally, seeks the destruction of Russia.

As for your second sentence, lol. All that shows is that rather than being some unhinged lunatic focused on the destruction of Europe, Putin wanted to integrate within the EU framework as an equal partner. With a large population and industrial base, why not?

Honestly, this whole schtick of reading everything Putin says in the worst possible light is a big reason why this war is happening.


He's said what the goals were, and the past 8 years of working with the coup regime to keep Ukraine in one piece via the Minsk accords attests to him actually believing those goals.

Putin's fault here is that he thinks there is negotiating with the West, when there really isn't. He should have known that in the 1990s, and it's taken him 30 years to learn this lesson, if he has even learned it.

The West's entire decision making apparatus is based on stipends from weapons manufacturers. Every think tank is funded by Western arms companies, every general who retires goes to a Raytheon or GD board seat, every person who appears on a talk show is paid by Boeing, every military affairs staffer for every major politician came from or is going to a cushy consulting gig with Lockheed Martin. There's no negotiating with this endless pit of vipers.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 21 2022 10:14am)

tldr: poor, benevolent, misunderstood Putin; evil, greedy, bloodthirsty West.

Quote (claw_outcast @ Sep 21 2022 10:59am)

Putin is a fucking dog and deserves a dog's death. Anyone trying to rationalize and humanize Putin doesn't even deserve a dog's death.

Quote (bogie160 @ Sep 21 2022 06:58am)

Hence the big "if", but it sounds like they're going to go ahead and try regardless. There's no way out for Putin that doesn't involve mobilization.

It sounds like partial mobilization is a go, 300k to start.

Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 21 2022 08:21am)

Hawks all over the globe rejoicing. Thundercock will get what he wants, more dead Russians and Ukrainians which obviously will leave Russia in a worse state.

Quote (chopstickz777 @ Sep 21 2022 10:13am)

Unlike Ukraine we see Russia distributing humanitarian aid and providing basic services to all civilians, the vast majority of whom are thankful for Russian assistance and hold the Russians in higher regard than their own nation's military, which makes sense since the Ukrainian army has been shelling them and trying to kill them for years after having been labeled subhuman scum that needs to get wiped out by the fascists over in Kiev. But I guess you missed that part, which isn't surprising - you aren't all that bright and you miss quite a few things. But you continue to spread nonsensical low-IQ propaganda straight outta WaPo, ironically. When will you finally rub your two brain cells together and realize the MSM is lying to you? Fucking facepalm dude.

Most of those who don't want to live under Russian rule have already left for Western Ukraine or Europe, the few that remain and who turn collaborators with the UkroNazis will simply be arrested by the FSB. But they are a small minority.

There are no rape or torture dungeons, although ironically it is actually the Ukrainian SBU who does those.. aimed at their own nation's citizens who "dissent", no less. But hey, apparently you don't actually care about Ukrainian civilians, but only about hating Russia. The same goes for most westerners.



Yes I'm aware of how the Eurolemmings have gone full Russophobe. That is why they are embracing the modern incarnation of the Nazi movement in Ukraine. Europe has re-embraced fascism and is openly supporting neonazi filth in Ukraine while at the same time working on enslaving their own people at home.

Europe is a joke and should be utterly ashamed of itself. They are a disgrace to their ancestors who fought in ww2 and a total fucking disgrace to every single politician that embraced peace in the post-ww2 aftermath. They have spit on their own legacy and are now once again destroying themselves just to try and finally destroy Russia, just like what they did with Napoleon's "Grand Armee" and with Hitler's Third Reich. Now they are doing it again through a proxy war in Ukraine, by once again providing support for Nazis. Europe has learned nothing from its own past and is now in the process of repeating it. Of course, it helps that every single Eurolemming government is totally subservient to the WEF, with the sole exception of Hungary apparently.

But none of that will stop the Poles or Romanians from grabbing UkroNazi territory once Ukraine disintegrates. They are inherently greedy, scheming, petty people. They will grab land. And Ukraine's disintegration by the way is a 100% guarantee. All that will be left of Ukraine when this is done is a tiny, mini-Banderastan comprised of Lviv and some of the areas around it where the UkroNazi ideology has taken a very strong hold. Russia will not want this area. They will however, take the entire east and southern coastal areas. They will get Odessa and they will make that land bridge to Transnistria. Ukraine signed its own death warrant when it refused to negotiate after Brandon and Boris Johnson gave them the order not to.

Russia won't care that some of these areas they take might end up sharing a border with Poland and Romania. The land that was formerly Ukraine will nevertheless serve as an additional buffer between the Russian mainland and NATO. Along with giving them a whole other host of benefits. But I digress, you're smart enough to understand hopefully.

Quote (RedFromWinter @ Sep 21 2022 02:41pm)

Putin's Cry Wolf rehtoric in response to failed special ops aggression is a pathetic posture. Hopefully strength of the Russian people will prevail over the little man.

Quote (ferdia @ Sep 21 2022 09:48am)

you didnt miss anything.