Smoke & Mirrors
If I summarize what we saw today from Moscow, it was a smoke & mirrors show. Even the Putin’s speach was a let down, and felt uninspired. He used fake news to justify the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He didn’t do what the west was afraid of: declaring conscription or a full out war with Ukraine. He didn’t because he probably knows that he couldn’t. Declaring a war would have been a sign of failure of the “special military ops”. Conscription wouldn’t bring combat effective resources soon enough anyway. Russia is simply failing at so many levels.
Again, for me, and probably for many military pundits, Russia is showing a pale version of its past. We shouldn’t be afraid of them. And we must keep the pressure on them, so when they lose, they will remember their losts for a long time.