[democracy]

I mean his only goal is to stay in power. If you "match to Kyiv" - you are guaranteed casualties and it's not going to help him with his ratings - now you have poor people with dead relatives. Russian army/people can fight well - but so can Ukrainians and Chechens - but there is zero motivation for the ordinary Russians to fight at the moment. He will always send private military groups but there is only that much you can do. There is no ideology to fight for, no grand ideas, no grand leader - a bunch of crooks living in palaces with their offspring living in London/Paris/Florida mansions.

Syria was easy - fighting against people with no modern weapons. But when Turkey shot down Russian jet - what was the reaction? It was a joke. How about helping Armenia recently with all "Collective Security Treaty" agreements? Nothing, again!

So Russia backs down against Turkey's aggression on a fair "casus belli" but is going against NATO on Ukraine? Please.

A strong leader has a strong country behind him - Putin's Russia is not, it is mostly frustrated population with weak economy and not much hope for the bright future. And whatever Putin is doing is not good for Russia, not improving its economy and not improving lives of ordinary people but doing exactly the opposite.

Putin is all about propaganda, illusions, dreams and nightmares - he knows propaganda works and he pumps billions into it. The reality will hit hard if he believes (or will believe) in his own picture of the world.

Putin, Lukashenko, Nazarbaev - their only agenda is to stay in power. There is no crime they will not do for this. If it means gas chambers - we are going to get gas chambers. Unfortunately this is the new reality of this era. But the good news is - they are old and don't understand or appeal to the younger generations. There is still a chance.

[bigodbiel]

Nazarbaev... and he’s gone! Ousted in a coup by his own protege, Tokaev during the recent Kazakh uprisings!