Putin rising from the grave of his hero

[blue-wave]

A pic from 2018 still relevant today

[Wounded Bear]

1. That's how he envisions himself, it seems...nt

[wnylib]

2. Dictator, yes. Communist, no. Putin is fascist.

[pazzyanne]

3. What a little man.

Those in power that do not do good for their people are spoiled children with big egos. Reminds me of a former American president. Nothing but empty shells.

[Haggard Celine]

4. He's ruling Russia about like it's always been ruled.

They've always had a strongman sort of dictator, going back to the czars, an aristocracy, and a whole lot of serfs. Even when the Communist Party was in control, you had to be a member of the party to really have anything and most people weren't in the party. Russia is as anti-democratic as always. The question is how much power and influence we're going to let them grab. I hope we have the power to stop Russia and China from taking more territory and spreading their dystopian views.

[Aviation Pro]

5. Should be Andropov

Not Stalin.

[modrepub]

6. The Rus

Putin harkens back to the origins of the Rus, the tribe that lay the foundation of the eventual Russian Empire. Most of the imagery he uses is a warped version of ancient history based on Eastern Orthodox supremacy, claims to the Byzantine Empire and whatever else these things will allow him to lay claim to territory and paths to power.

What Putin truly operates is a corrupt money laundering oligarchy. In truth it has little economic power beyond energy production. It's armed forces probably wouldn't function in a long-term drawn out affair with long supply lines. He has to pick his battles carefully. Small enough to win quickly and decisively but not large enough to become drawn out and expensive in cost or resource depletion. He's only powerful if he wins. Any large loss will shake his coalition and threaten his rule.

[jaxexpat]

7. If Putin faces defeat and rejection, will he use his nuclear weapons?

That is the ONLY important question. Do we go from a half-assed response to Covid 19 right into Armageddon with enough adventure to go around for everyone? Will NATO concede in the face of Putin's personal "death star" capability?

Do you suppose there are some out there who have thought it viable how a global warming could be countered by a nuclear winter? Do we imagine that some of the "geniuses" in the US military chain of command haven't already posited such a ludicrous concept? The threat doesn't go away if we delude ourselves, "they're too smart to miss the folly of such thinking". Michael Flynn had 3 stars on each of his shoulders. How in hell did that happen?

[modrepub]

8. My Father Was In The Air Force

His primary job was to sit in the ICBM silos and wait for a call to arm and launch the ICBMs at the start of any nuclear exchange. Basically him and another officer were locked in the silo waiting for a call. Each officer was given a key to start the launch sequence if the command was given. Both keys would have to be activated to actually launch to prevent a rogue officer from launching on his own. Of course he was given instructions to shoot the other officer if he (this was back in the 60s so I doubt there were any female officers in the missile command group) failed to obey, take his key and launch the ICBMs ASAP. Said the work was very boring and he spent most of his time in the silos reading.

My point on this it there's a huge misconception that there's a single button that launches the nuclear weapons. There's a lot of fail safes built into both the Russian and American nuclear arsenal. It would be very hard to launch a nuclear strike via one person. Remember the US general who was trying to keep the nuclear football from Trump after Jan 6th? There are a lot of sane folks who would be very hesitant to comply with a nuclear strike order for obvious reasons.

Putin's gambit in Ukraine could easily backfire on him if it doesn't produce quick results. Russian military logistics are probably very poor. If Ukraine has upped their military capabilities since the Crimea escapade they may well be able to hold their own or maybe inflict some effective counter punches that embarrass the Russians. If the later is the case, Putin will appear weak and subject himself to possible removal. Russia's obvious build up is an attempt to extract something. Otherwise he would have kept it hidden and made a move to gain the full advantage of surprise.

If you know anything about late Roman history, and Putin seems to put himself more on footing similar to the Czars (which means Caesar in Russian), you know what happens to Emperors who do not deliver on the battlefield. They basically get cast away; either sent into exile or summarily executed. Putin has a lot to loose if he makes any missteps, probably more than NATO and us at this point.

[jaxexpat]

9. Exactly so. The question remains.....

Can he, will he, launch rather than fall upon his sword? I knew a guy who manned one of those stations in South Dakota. He said boredom was the rule for on duty and intoxication for off duty.

[modrepub]

10. Only If Foreign Troops Pass Through the Current Boundary

Maybe he could on the predication there is an invasion of the motherland. But I suspect a launch may be real difficult if Russian technology, hardware and logistics have suffered as bad as their economy has over the past few decades.

We're not dealing with a country that operates on the same level as the US. Hell their military capabilities may not be up to a county like India at this point.