It is always about the hair with you Hobbits.
Yeah, it is in the Putin doctrine that if you are losing and it is not going your way, destroy the place. As I understand things they have tactical nukes he is considering using. This is the way of a madman and so if he goes this route, there was never a chance to negotiate with him. I don't know what will happen.
I've listened to the experts and most claim his nuke threat is a bluff but a few say it is not out of the question if he feels he has no other way to appear strong.
The diplomatic route is to provide him an offramp and way out of this mess where he saves face. Macron has been speaking with him and trying to push him in the right direction. It seems not to be working and Putin, who is quite obviously vain, paranoid, and yes, a bit insane, keeps escalating his demands as he does not want to appear weak.
He made a major miscalculation that the Ukrainians would welcome his takeover. They want nothing to do with Russia though and want to join the EU and be part of the West.
It does appear since the Ukrainians will not give in to him and did not embrace his troops that he now has a major issue on his hands. He does not have enough troops there to take and hold the country and so it will devolve into a bloody battle that goes on for years and basically wipes Ukraine off the map...as it will mostly be destroyed. The Russian troops appear poorly trained and inept and some are deserting. Their supposed "strategy" is also a mess. So, what is going to happen?
The Russian doctrine is devastation if you are losing.
There are a couple things left in the bag. One is if China rejects him and what he is doing in Ukraine. That would be huge. I suppose this could happen. I would think China would prefer to side with the United States and EU over Putin's "gas station posing as a country" which has the GDP of Italy.
The second is, with the sanctions and the West going after the Russian oligarchs and their personal belongings, they may make the decision that Putin is no longer the guy they want to be tied up with and so they may kill him or at least oust him themselves. The truth is Putin knows some of his own people want him dead.
Putin is living in a fantasy land and so, I do believe they should clean up their own mess and off him themselves, thus freeing the world of a vicious tyrant.
His own troops could decide they are not going to follow orders and it does appear that the Russian troops, many of them, don't at all like the idea of killing Ukrainians.
