A month into war, Putin's mind-set is complex -- and dangerous

[highplainsdem]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/22/putin-religious-russia-history-ukraine/

As the Ukraine war nears a month of brutal fighting, Vladimir Putin is obsessed with Ukraine, angry at his generals, paranoid about enemies at home and abroad, and wrapping his bloody deeds in spiritual language almost mystical in its vision of Russia’s past and future.

Putin’s mind-set was on display at a stadium concert last week, as he invoked a Russian Orthodox warrior-saint who spoke of his own battles as “thunderstorms” that would “glorify Russia.”

“This is how it was in his time; this is how it is today and will always be,” Putin said of Fedor Ushakov, an 18th-century admiral reputed never to have lost a battle and canonized as a saint in 2001, shortly after Putin became president.

Putin’s short remarks offered a reminder that his personality is more complex — and perhaps more dangerous — than the usual stereotype of him as an ex-KGB officer who wants to revive the Soviet Union. Putin is something different — a Russian Orthodox Christian believer rather than an atheist, with an ideology closer to Benito Mussolini’s fascism than Vladimir Lenin’s communism.

-snip

The sooner he's gone -- by any means necessary -- the better, for the entire world.

[empedocles]

1. ' . . . his personality is more complex . . . '

Perhaps putin's personality is much more complex.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/president-putin-is-a-dangerous-psychopath-reason-is-not-going-to-work-with-him-10015896.html

[dutch777]

2. I would not be surprised with his mindset if he nuked Kyiv or used chemical weapons

I think he has enough presence of mind to not deliberately trigger a full NATO response but within the box that is Ukraine, I would not assume it won't get much worse and more dangerous. The sanctions are great, just a decade or so too late.