XPost: alt.politics, alt.politics.republicans, alt.elections
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh

https://www.euronews.com/2023/12/14/putin-says-no-peace-in-ukraine-until-russias-goals-are-achieved

The Russian president was speaking at an end of year press
conference, which was somewhat overshadowed by the peculiar
disappearance of jailed former opposition leader Alexeï
Navalny.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there will be no
peace in Ukraine until his goals are achieved - and said
those objectives remain unchanged.

Putin was speaking at a year-end news conference on Thursday
which offered the leader an opportunity to reinforce his
grip on power.

Giving rare detail on what Moscow calls its special military
operation, Putin dismissed the need for a second wave of
mobilisation of reservists to fight in Ukraine - a move
that proved deeply unpopular in the past.

He said there are some 617,000 Russian soldiers currently
there, including around 244,000 troops who were called
up to fight alongside professional Russian military forces.

. . .

OK ... we're well into this war now. Russia has lost
a huge amount of soldiers and equipment and money, but
Putin has NO intention of letting off - he's committed
to his 'vision'.

He has re-shaped relations with China, India, NK and Iran.
Western "sanctions" have barely had an effect.

Challenge his rule and you DIE/disappear.

So far nobody has dared stick a shiv in his back, so
let's not plan for that to happen anytime soon.

So, on the current track, Russia WILL continue with
its Ukraine campaign. The ultimate goal will be to
grab ALL of Ukraine, not just that eastern edge.

And AFTER success, Russia will proceed to find ways
to 're-patriate' everything else it owned at the
height of the Cold War and more. Ukraine is NOT the
alpha and omega, just the first step. It will always
have a 'good reason/excuse'.

The EXPENSE of stopping
Russian imperialism will be so great that it will
go largely unopposed. Putin (and likely ultra-
nationalist successors) don't CARE how many Russian
soldiers die so long as the 'vision' is realized.
Russia can and will continue to escalate, build more
weapons factories, sow systemic and political disruption
in opposing nations and slowly draw in more allies.

This is BAD BAD BAD.

Like the Taliban and VC, constant pressure eventually
wears down opponents. Russia will always apply such
pressure, political/economic, until the will and
resources of its opponents collapse.

'Democracies' rely on public opinion. They do not
respond well to "forever wars" and the human and
economic toll. Eventually they cave, assuming THEY
will be OK - and fuck anyone else. They will insist
on appeasement after appeasement, thinking that will
keep everything safe (for THEM).

HOW to sustain the will to resist ??? After WW-2 it
was relatively easy - 'patriotism' and the hangover
of the NAZI global threat. But that faded a long
time ago. Shit, half the youth these days seem to
support bloody terrorists, anarchists and antisemitic
notions Goebbels would have been proud of.

Longer-term, this does not look good for "the west".
Like Rome, we seem to have reached a certain peak
and then dipped into apathy and antipathy and inward
focus. The end of western civ SEEMS impossible, everyone
feels safe.

Not.

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