Like a struggling swimmer, he may take desperate measures to stay afloat.

These are tricky times for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “special military operation” he launched against Ukraine in 2022, intended to last a few days until a puppet regime in Kyiv could be installed, has now gone on longer than both the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany and all of World War I. His forces have long ceased making significant gains on the battlefield; some data even suggest that Russian forces lost territory in April and May. What gains the Russians have made have come at enormous cost: Last month, Anna Keast-Butler, the director of British intelligence agency GCHQ, cited new intelligence indicating that Russian war deaths had likely reached almost half a million; various Western sources put total Russian casualties at significantly more than 1 million.

  • sougstron@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    Oh no, again that analytics like “country X sinks soon”, “rockets stockpiles is almost depleted”, “warmonger Y is struggled in that wartimes”, “country A economics blows in X days, Y months”. You may paste here Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, USA or countryname_in_conflict and vary of self-pronounced intelligence or different countries and nothing changes, none of them is truth and works only on feelings of reader at the moment of reading and slightly after it forming subjects “own” point of view if that “intelligence” will be delivered constantly by some time to the same username.

  • rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    345·
    4 days ago

    oh no oh nooooooo dont pressure putin he might do. he might do Something

    i like how that op-ed completely ignores ongoing stream of arson cases and other sabotage. no mention of baltyisk gps jammer either

    • egrets@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      Strange take. The article is in no way suggesting appeasement, and is entirely critical of Putin as a leader.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      3 days ago

      I can’t see the part of the article behind a paywall, but I read it as that familiar quote of a cornered animal being the most dangerous. If he believes he has nothing left to lose, he’s more likely to strike out without inhibitions.

      That’s not a call to appeasement but a warning that things can get even more dangerous just before the end. If Putin really is in fear of losing, or in fear of losing his power, will he stop at conventional attacks? Will he stop at the country he’s already attacking? Or will he strike randomly wherever and howeverhe can do the most harm?

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        The Samson option.

        In case the integrity of the Jewish state is ever genuinely threatened, they will nuke everybody, including the USA.

        This is what they said themselves, in about so many words.

        It gives everyone a reason to keep them safe.

        Evil, isn’t it? And very on brand.

  • Linktank@lemmy.todayEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I’m surprised that there’s not just an endless stream of drones blowing up at whatever his last known location was at this point.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipEnglish
    21·
    4 days ago

    Goddammit it’s been over 4 years hasn’t it.

    But the sentiment expressed in the first 2 paragraphs is nothing new. Collapse has been imminent for a while, but it’s happening too slowly. The Kremlin has employed all sorts of life-extending tricks in the past years and probably they can still keep it up for a while.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Media has been giving a lot of credit to the head of the Russian central bank holding everything together. When she disappeared, I was wondering if it all was finally falling apart.

      But she’s back

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    78·
    3 days ago

    I’m pro-Ukraine and fuck Putin. I’m conflicted though because I’ve always loved Russian art and literature. That comes from the people though, not the power. The people are almost the same everywhere. If the people ever get their collective shit together then watch out power!

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      73·
      3 days ago

      But the great Russian art and literature is mostly from the Russian empire. That Russia is long gone

      Even literature protesting the Soviet Union belongs to a Russia that’s long gone

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      has now gone on longer than both the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany and all of World War I.

      While it sounds a bit awkward, I expect that the "Soviet fight against Nazi Germany " roughly-approximates to “The Great Patriotic War”.

      • Nautalax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        They were being overly pedantic about a sentence in the article in the article that I found intelligible imo, but read their comment more carefully. WWI is the first world war, the one before the Nazis came on scene.

        • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          3 days ago

          They were being overly pedantic about a sentence in the article

          I guess you could read it that way. Unfortunately, emotion and speaking mannerisms don’t translate through text. Which is why Poe’s law exists. I read the comment at face value.

          WWI is the first world war, the one before the Nazis came on scene.

          Fair point. I guess I’m just too used to people generalizing and overusing the term “Nazi”. My mind just took their meaning as “I didn’t know the Soviets fought the Germans”. And I’ve met people who didn’t know that fact, so it’s not a stretch.