Scholarship table
Now that Ukraine is scoring some pretty major victories, I worry that Putin will do something really insane and evil -- above and beyond his usual level of insanity and evilness.How bad would it have to get for Russia for Putin to pull out nukes? Hopefully they're off the table, but he is Putin.
Maybe could, but he is a rich dictator. Why threaten his good life.
Seems like a lot of the former Soviet republics in Asia see more of a future relating to China versus Russia.
I don't see how Putin politically survives until the end of the year. If he isn't extremely careful, he will have open rebellion from Chechnya soon. And then you might see some of the other former Soviet states begin to feast on the corpse of Russia.
I went down this rabbit hole recently. It’s sort of confusing what signals Chechnya is sending and how strong they are. There’s a fair amount of internal stress there, so can they fight on two fronts? I know Kadyrov rules with an iron-fist but there was more opposition to him than I imagined.
And there is newly released audio of Kadyrov criticizing Putin and lamenting the difficulties in Ukraine. Also saying there is a serious disconnect between leadership and what is actually happening on the ground.A very brazen statement from one of Putin's own.This tells me that Kadyrov sees the war as lost and is shoring up his leadership to break away if things continue. If Chechnya breaks away, I wouldn't be shocked to see Georgia make a grab on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Georgian government is essentially pro Putin, but if dominoes start to fall their self interest will outstrip their loyalty to Putin.
Based on the stuff I've been reading about how the war has progressed, it looks like Douglas-Tyson, the Miracle on Ice and Nova-Georgetown might each be dropping a rung in the "greatest upsets of all time" category.
I don’t know if this is true. The strength of the Russian Army has always lied with numbers. Historically, at least the last few centuries, the myth hasn’t matched reality. It’s often been disorganized and undisciplined. We really underestimate the importance of understanding needing a reason to fight. The Ukrainian’s have it. Not sure the foot soldier of Russia has the heart for it.
Not sure this is that accurate. Remember, one can argue we lost in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Not to mention the Bay of Pigs. None of those had the allied support of the entire world against the aggressor. Invading a country period is a monumental task. Achieving a sustained victory in modern times is not common.
Because of the chip shortage and supply chain issue, Russia cannot build new tanks, new smart weapons as they use up their pre war stock.I think learning this lesson is an unspoken reason behind the microchip manufacturing bill. We need domestic chip production to supply modern weaponry.
I doubt if most Americans even realize when things like this are done for the military.Another was the Interstate Highway System under Eisenhower.
It clearly has domestic benefits as well. Look at auto manufacturing right now. So, I think the purpose was two-fold, but the military facet was not discussed