Quote (ferdia @ Dec 23 2022 12:15pm)
if he really wanted to go off the deep end in 2002-2008 he "could".
Possibly, that however does not disprove Putin intentions from the beginning.
Look at his rhetoric on Ukraine and on the fall of the USSR also.
This was never about Russian security, or protecting Russian speakers. Never about demilitarization of Ukraine, de-Nazification of Ukraine.
This is about the dictator of a gas station with an undiversified economy and diminished global significance. Remove the hydrocarbons or the nukes and Russia fades into obscurity.