Vladimir Putin is 69 years old. He has been at Russian leadership for a ridiculously long time. That bothers me as does his departure from his decrees. The departure from decrees was planned and not an accident. The interior of Russia is getting very different message than the rest of the world. They are being fed the idea this is to protect "Russian people" in the two decree regions and not the more extended war to kill those Putin hates.
That said, under normal circumstances, a man at the age or 70 is looking at his life and measuring his success versus his failures as he would measure himself. I think the aging Putin has issues with the idea of being a failure with the fall of the Soviet Union. He was KGB and he probably has asked himself many times if he was good enough to protect the country versus the Soviet Union falling of it's own mass and lack of economy.
Taking that sort of measure, no matter how that might be playing out with Putin, applying it to a man that is basically in power for the rest of his life is a problem in that there is no end of his terms in office. In the USA, when there is a term limit there is an increase of influence by a president by eight years in a job where learning on the job has it's place. In the beginning of any new presidency in the USA there is somewhat of a stumble after about six months and then he (no she yet) gets his legs under him and the way forward begins to find a clear path. That so called six month stumble doesn't exist in Russia. It not only doesn't exist in Russia, but, Putin has a very long view of his power and vision of Russia.
I should preface this by stating I am very grateful for President Biden at this point in USA history.
Let's just say as granted Donald John Trump was backed by Russia and was instilled into the USA presidency for Putin's purpose in 2016. Donald John Trump gave Russia a great deal of classifed information from the USA, hence, NATO, etc. I am sure a portion of that was passed on to China. I don't really believe Putin cares about Trump and the fact that he is gone doesn't matter since he served Putin's purpose to the extent Putin wanted. Putin may want to put Trump back into power in a post apocalyptic USA, hence, Trump playing to that end by favoring Pro-Russian Orban (click here). I do believe that vision is real to some degree between the haters of democracy.
Initially, I didn't expect a full invasion into Ukraine although President Zelenskyy stated it was coming. I thought Putin would simply take land and the people on it and be satiated for awhile. The fact Putin invaded the entire country with the forces he put into place beginning well over a year ago somewhat tells his intentions for the future. I have stated this before and I believe it more and more, but, Putin is measuring the information he received from Trump and realizing it will all be changed under President Biden as soon as military contracts can be signed for new and better defenses. Include in all this China as an ally to Russia.
Vladimir Putin has hypersonic jets. Corretion, at least one. I believe those jets on occassion made it into the USA and viewed by the public as a UFO. I also believe that is part of his nuclear triad. Whether Europe and the USA can defend from those hypersonic jets and/or missiles is a good question. Considering Putin has a nuclear triad, some sites in reach of Europe from the land, and China assiting along with North Korea; that can cause enormous death and damage not even considering The West's exchange upon first strike.
Given the surprise by Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in it's entirety I think he has a much larger goal, whether it is realistic or not. I believe the elite of Russia has goals to carry out a post apocalyptic world. It would make sense with Russia laughing at sanctions as a deterent to war and a much larger war. To those that bought into Putin's pain over the Soviet Union they would banter his accomplishments of hypersonic jets and the idea Putin has played a genius game in placing Trump into the presidency and it is now time to carry out the ultimate game and attack all those that cause Vladimir's pain, past and present.
It is a bit eccentric, but, possible. It is the possibility I address and not a known plan. I would expect the length to world war to be short considering that sanctions are such a bother to Russia's elite.
