Richard Wilson4 said:
If Putin were actually the grandmaster strategist everyone claims he is, he wouldn't have messed with Crimea. He would have just slapped sanctions on Ukraine right after Viktor Yanukovych fled.
The people would have turned on the government during the first economic crisis, and then boom—they'd end up with another Russian puppet in Kyiv.
Bottom line: the guy isn't some genius.
He’s got a bunch of yes-men in his inner circle telling him Russia is still a superpower. He invaded Ukraine hoping to crush them in three days while assuming the West wouldn't do anything about it. That's the whole story.
We're talking about an army that ran out of fuel in the first few weeks, was eating food rations that expired back in 2015, didn't even have gear for night fighting, and so on...
If Putin were actually the grandmaster strategist everyone claims he is, he wouldn't have messed with Crimea. He would have just slapped sanctions on Ukraine right after Viktor Yanukovych fled.
The people would have turned on the government during the first economic crisis, and then boom—they'd end up with another Russian puppet in Kyiv.
Bottom line: the guy isn't some genius.
He’s got a bunch of yes-men in his inner circle telling him Russia is still a superpower. He invaded Ukraine hoping to crush them in three days while assuming the West wouldn't do anything about it. That's the whole story.
We're talking about an army that ran out of fuel in the first few weeks, was eating food rations that expired back in 2015, didn't even have gear for night fighting, and so on...
What a freaking genius. Where did I even say that? Look, I’ve always said—and I still stand by it—that Russians are massive complex-driven types with an insane inferiority complex regarding the West. When I say they prepared, all I mean is they had a contingency plan for Western sanctions ready to go, and they actually pulled it off. If they hadn't, their economy would have imploded by now. That level of prep didn't just happen overnight when the invasion started.
Plus, those missiles are packed with Western tech—how exactly did they manage to pull that off if they wanted to be able to fire stuff like Iskanders? They knew damn well they’d be cut off from those components immediately, which means they must have stockpiled a massive supply back before February ended. And another thing—this whole attempt to build a payment system isn't some last-minute scramble. Why would they kick the entire process into gear if everything was running smoothly before the invasion?
The answer is dead simple—the Russians didn't just suddenly decide to invade back in February. That whole idea had been simmering in their heads for a long, long time.
For crying out loud, you only need basic common sense here, not a PhD in nuclear physics...
The way Russia fights is a whole different beast. They thought they could just pull off some Blitzkrieg move and sweep through Ukraine—kind of like how the US does things—but they don't have anywhere near the readiness or the coordination within their military branches to actually pull off massive operations like that. It’s not even a question: they got absolutely wrecked right out of the gate.
It’s honestly pointless to sit here debating what Russia could have pulled off back in 2014. They just don't have the chops to push through color revolutions when they're staring down the barrel of the West. Sure, the Soviet Union had that whole ideological framework thing working for them once, but that's ancient history.
I'm not even talking about all that—I’m talking about the facts that are sitting right there like an elephant in a glass house.
Russia’s been prepping this invasion for a long time. If they hadn't spent all that time getting ready, there's no way they could actually handle this much economic pressure.
The European Union is completely unprepared for this mess. Honestly, by pushing all these sanctions on Russia, they’re basically setting themselves up to fail. It doesn't even matter if the Russians win or the Ukrainians win—the EU is going to end up getting screwed regardless. And frankly, they barely deserve better when the entire Brussels bureaucracy is just a bunch of idiots clinging to their cushy, taxpayer-funded seats. And that’s exactly the point—everyone’s just obsessing over whether Russia is going to crush them, if they're playing some insane game of 6D chess, if they'll eventually get shut down, or if Ukraine is actually going to pull off a win. It's all just noise.
Regarding that last bolded point—what’s actually new here? Honestly, the Russians have been playing this same blunt, "brute force" game throughout history. It’s always just mass moving against mass; they haven't figured out any other way to operate. They won't be ready for another 20 years, let alone be able to pivot and start following NATO standards overnight. If you want to look at where they *have* actually made progress, it’s their grip on the financial system, food production (aiming for total self-sufficiency), and energy control. All of that required serious groundwork, much of which involved strategic diplomatic maneuvering and securing energy guarantees long before the war even started.
What a total mess. It’s like I’m trying to write in Japanese or something—absolute nonsense. Screw this 6D chess bullshit, Vladimir Putin, and whoever thinks they have a better doctrine than everyone else...☕
