No need to worry, this war is going exactly Putin’s way.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, Russians rolling into Kiev within 3 days and being greeted as liberators would have been preferable, but as a consolation prize, he’ll take the excuse this war provides to re-orient Russian society toward “patriotism” and its economy toward the East, to crack down on the last remnants of independent media, and to toss any less-than-enthusiastic oligarchs and potential rivals out of windows.
Ukraine may be the formal objective, but the real prize is Russia.
So while Putin might pound his fist and cry some crocodile tears at this speech, a dictator such as he has ways of winning wars that he is otherwise “losing.”
“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
