Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, February 21, 2022

Putin's Escape Hatch

 First, if you want to know what's really going on in the Ukraine/Russia situation, don't watch cable news. They have their war-boners on and it's really just breathless bullshit.

Anyway, Putin has miscalculated that the West would collapse in the face of sustained pressure. The Biden/NATO information war has been on point, constantly painting Putin into a corner. 

My guess is that Putin will annex the eastern areas of Ukraine already under separatist control. It is approaching mud season in Russia and the ability to conduct maneuver warfare will be constrained. Simply taking what he already effectively has allows him to continue to pressure Ukraine and will test the resolve of Western sanctions. Sanctions will hurt Europe. Russia will be hurt more, but Europe will feel it and might not want to pummel their post-Covid recoveries to defend Donetsk.

My guess is that he has miscalculated about that, too, but that he will use the seizure of Eastern Ukraine as a "victory" to climb down from the peak of this crisis.

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