Mar 26, 2020, 5:18 AM
—“Thoughts on Putin?”—
I love putin. If he had handled ukraine without panicking he’d still be the most influential politician in the world. One mistake ruins a legacy. It would have taken truth. Russians have a problem with truth. He could have said: “We have traditionally invested heavily in the area, and we cannot have our only warm water port and our military manufacturing fall out of our control. This would produce strategic vulnerability that could lead to future conflicts between us. As such we are restoring our traditional control over the don valley, the crimean peninsula, the land route between them, and the russian people who have migrated and lived there over the past century. In exchange we will grant ukraine a 20% discount on gas for the rest of the century, and secure their banking system from volatility. We apologize to the world for having to make this unfortunate decision but it is necessary for world stability.” That’s it. That’s all that it would have taken. Ukrainians don’t like the people in that area. they had discussed secession in the past to rid themselves of the region. Putin is exceptional at ‘shrugging off’ idealism and sticking with ‘reasonableness’. Instead, he created enemies and ruined his legacy. The worst that would have happened is a wink-wink bit of criticism, and the generals around the world would have understood putin was right, and explained to their politicians the rationality. No one could have stopped russia, and no one wanted to.