Why didn't Putin make his move while Trump was President?

[tetedur]

There would have been no rallying of NATO by the US. There would have been much negative administration blather about any EU efforts to support Ukraine.

Unless it was somehow stifled by Covid-19, I'm baffled why he didn't invade Ukraine when he had the chance.

[lagomorph777]

1. Very good question.

Maybe it took him longer to prepare than he expected. Or maybe he assumed Trump could take permanent control of the US.

[lark]

2. Bazinga!

He believed drumpf (idiots both) would steal the election again with his persistent help but they both failed. He had the timing down, he just didn't get the president he wanted and decided to use this to hurt Biden, although it also hurts him and hopefully really bigly!

[Botany]

3. I know this sounds nuts but is Putin going after Ukraine now to take the heat off all the shit ....

.... that is coming down on TFG right now.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Nothing Putin is doing now is affecting the court cases against Trump. n/t

[lagomorph777]

5. Seems unlikely - Turd is no longer much use to Putin - no point investing resources to help him.

[zuul]

11. I agree with you.

[StClone]

16. People will disagree but YES

He put pressure on Biden/Dems to make the world markets, gas, inflation worse to get his Republican buddies election push to use against Dems. It is a distraction for anything in the world, too.

Ukraine attack is not one-dimensional. Pootey has made several calculations on its effect...but I think he is not compos mentis.

[Jim__]

6. Putin wants to break up NATO. Trump was also trying to break it up.

If Putin started invading European nations, the argument that NATO is no longer needed falls apart. He may have wanted NATO to break up before he started rebuilding the Soviet empire.

[chowder66]

20. +1

[dchill]

7. He was waiting for Trumpski to do away with stupid elections...

Then he would have carte blanche for whatever he wanted to do. Whenever he wanted to do it. I'm sure he STILL THINKS there's a chance that dream will come true - with the help of Fox & friends and the Russo-Republican Party.

[LizBeth]

8. I am guessing... He was looking for Trumps take over and control of US,

and why he was so quiet during Trump term.

[Mike Nelson]

9. Probably...

... he's sticking to his planned schedule. He was likely assured, by Crooked Donald, that the second term would be a better time, for both of them.

[Amishman]

10. low fossil fuel prices

With prices high and going higher, he knows he can find buyers and fund his government despite the certain sanctions.

Oil was sub $80 for the entirety of the Trump years. Other than one very brief spike in 2018, natural gas was sub $4

[EarlG]

12. Putin knew that invading Ukraine would unite NATO and Europe

Therefore it would make sense for him to have Trump to do as much damage as he could before Putin took the next step. If Trump had won re-election, Putin would have probably taken another four years of Trump undermining NATO and Western alliances, as well as spreading pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the U.S.

Remember Putin also spent the last several years trying to disintegrate Europe, with his interference in Brexit and support for right-wing populist causes across the continent. As soon as Trump was off the table, Putin had gotten all he could out of him, so he could move on to the next step knowing that he'd probably done as much as he could to weaken NATO and Europe. Postponing the invasion any further would only allow Biden more time to rebuild alliances.

[Hortensis]

13. With tRump's U.S. at least passively supporting Russia's imperialism,

Europe's NATO nations would have needed their self defense alliance all the more. They would have "rallied" themselves. It's one thing for Germany to enter into economic agreement with Russia and another to "give" Russia its neighboring nations. I doubt they'd wonder if Putin would be satisfied with East Germany.

[RussBLib]

14. Putin cannot make the same argument re Europe

as he did for Ukraine, about Ukraine being traditionally Russian. But he could always concoct some other bullshit.

[StClone]

15. Good time for Russians to overthrow Putin

With a lot of resources tied up far away.

[CentralMass]

17. He like to do his invasions after the winter Olympics .

[orwell]

18. He sees this as a no lose situation...

...He is trying to destabilize the West, which he has essentially done.

...He is projecting "power" on the world stage as a "decisive leader".

...He is politically coopting the entire RePubeLieCon party.

...He has moved enough assets since 2014 and under Drumpf's cuckolding watch to blunt the effects of any sanctions.

...He is increasing the price of oil and natural gas, Russia's main export and the most important pillar of the desperately fragile Russian economy.

...He is enriching his small coterie of ex-KGB government officials and oligarchs to maintain his hold on power.

...He is defining his "legacy" as a great Russian leader and attempting to partially undo the shame of the Russian Empire's capitulation to the West.

...He is defining himself as the de facto leader of the global autocracy movement, a movement he largely helped to engineer. He sees this as a existential campaign to restore patriarchy and to defeat liberalism.

[moondust]

19. Waiting for Godot?

TFG and the GQP had not fully marginalized voters by 2020. He had to run for a 2nd term (Godot). Voters might have been turned off enough by his buddy Vlad's invasion to vote against TFG's reelection. And so he/they decided to wait until the 2nd term when TFG would be able to do whatever he wanted without fear of voters and maybe even rig it so he could remain dictator for life. Vlad would be safe to do whatever he wanted then and TFG would be happy to oblige.

Godot never showed up.

[Tommy Carcetti]

21. Ambassador Michael McFaul's take.

Link to tweet

Michael McFaul @McFaul · 2m

Trump had one policy towards Putin. His administration had another. A Trump second term, however, would not have included people Mattis, McMaster, Bolton, Hill etc. He would have been completely free to throw Ukraine under the bus and weaken if not destroy NATO.

12:19 PM · Feb 22, 2022·Twitter Web App

[RobinA]

22. Trump

was too unpredictable. Putin isn’t going to make an aggressive move with a blustering loose cannon in the White House. Putin may also want some external constraint. Trump’s more likely to say, Go ahead Puty, turn it into a parking lot, it doesn’t affect me. Putin may not want carte blanc.

[maxrandb]

23. Because he now has inrefutable evidence

That a major political party in America is completely and totally on this side.

January 6 was a trial balloon. How the Retrumplicans Party reacted to it was the evidence he needed to show that his takeover of the Retrumplican Party was complete.