Putin miscalculated because he is so afraid of technology that he only accepts p

Putin miscalculated because he is so afraid of technology that he only accepts paper and verbal reports. He foolishily believed what he was being told byhis people – which is evidence of the failure of despotism. Are his actions otherwise rational? Of course. Given he believed the nonsense from his generals, his intelligence service, and his miltary suppliers. Given our previous reactions to his expansionary militarism in the caucuses. Given our reaction to his taking of donbas and crimea. Given the election of Biden not trump. He made a calculation based on bad information. And now he’s stuck. Because he’s going to be murdered if he loses power. The US strategy has been consistent, which is to wear down russia’s military, economy, and political legitimacy – which is taking far longer than we’d hoped or expected, but it’s working. So as long as the Ukrainian’s are willing to fight, russia will continue to bleed out until they must come to the table. And hopefully, if russia falls far enough we can integrate them rather than have them fall to china and minorities in the east, and islam from the center and south.
I’m not ‘special’. I’m just someone sympathetic to the extreme right wing, and in return some of them tend to listen to. As far as I know all geostrategic thinkers (most of whom I know) understand this.
The variable isn’t russia. The variable isn’t europe. Europe is doing what trump wanted them to. The variable is the potential evolution int he USA which could turn the whole world into chaos. Or the triggering of war with china which would mean we might not pay enough attention to russia over ukraine and the baltics.

Reply addressees: @hbd_orbiter