Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 25

Good boy.

I mean Lucifer in the literary sense, and Mephistopheles like in Faust.

He's not a normal human being.

Russians are in awe of him, those that love him and also those that hate him. The whole world is obsessed with Putin - for similarly different reasons.

This is a man that can charm Trump, and Assad, and Ramzan Kadyrov - and make them eat out of his hand. We know, that these types of pitbulls/rottweilers won't lick someone's hand, unless they sense the presence of an alpha.

He seems like a spirit that came from the ancient past, to lord over us.

He's permanent - like Lucifer - always fighting the American God.

Did you mean to say a dwarf full of complexes?

I have a "broad" understanding of psychopathy.

For example - I think that a majority of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are psychopaths.

Steve Jobs was certainly a psychopath. So is Mark Zuckerberg.

Psychopaths are not only manipulators or people with a stunted sense of empathy.

Psychopaths are also egotistical and bold "doers" - that trample others underfoot in the pursuit of their aims.

They have a stunted sense of risk, of fear.

They can be impulsive, or not particularly adept at extrapolating the consequences of their actions.

All potentially important qualities - within the right contexts.

I never judge a man by what he says or projects, but only what he does.

Imagine it's Jan 2022. What would you do if you were him?

Assume I came from Mars and I don't read books, so go easy on fictional characters and psych terms. Whataboutism is fine.

I would certainly not invade Ukraine.

If you polled the financial community in Moscow in 2022 in January - probably 90% would say Putin is not gonna invade Ukraine because it is a crazy thing to do.

If you interviewed subject matter specialists in New York, whose job it is to watch Russia - they would also all say in unison - "this is a nothing burger".

Everybody thought he was playing. Bluffing. Bargaining for a better position.

In the event, it turned out Putin really is completely crazy.

--//--

Crazy in the frame of reference of any normal person.

He did something - which was so out of this world - that it simply left us all shocked.

Over time, everyone has gotten on the same page as him, and now we support him - but he really did do something completely unexpected.

--//--

When Putin talks about himself, he often disagrees that he has a "distorted sense of risk".

But that is precisely what was written about Putin in dossier by his former employers (we now have this thanks to archives).

Putin says that he has an adequate sense of danger, but that is clearly not the case from observing his actions. (Source: tass.ru/obschestvo/23848209).

--//--

He has a lowered sense of risk. He's got a combative personality style (as he says, "formed in the streets of St. Petersburg while fighting bullies). He has a feeling that he can ask great things from people, and that they owe him them (interesting also).

--//--

Back to your question - I would probably fold under Biden's and the EU's pressure - and back off.

I would feel it is too much responsibility to take - to plunge Russia into a war against these two great powers.

But Putin has balls, and a completely broken compass in terms of danger.

Maybe what he did was right in the end, maybe it wasn't.

That's why he is the president of Russia - and I am a nobody.

Not hard to do, you are nowhere near as clever as you think you are.


Mate, you are the most intelligent Russian poster on PF.

Bobko didn't said yet what would be answer to heavy shelling on Donetsk and ethnic cleanising in Donbass, to make it Bandera-praying territory

Putin reacted with preventive conventional SMO. Someone may react post-factum by nuclear strike to main decision making centers (no, not the ones in Kiev).

Germans so LOVE him! *sniffles* :)

.....we would worship his statues, if we had some....

At last! Young Russians are finding their balls and at last they are standing up against Putin!

I'm not impressed... if this is true (which I doubt) they're only upset because their treats are more expensive and a few things are more inconvenient. There's still no evidence that any significant number of russians are opposed to invading and trying to take over other countries. And again, no evidence that any significant number of russians care at all that so many of their soldiers are being killed.

You are right, to a degree, that seems to be the Russian mentality, they can ignore the fact that thousands, even hundreds of thousands of their Russian youth are dying in Ukraine but get upset when supermarket prices go up or there are shortages!!!

Ghouls.

...sending a message that you are weak and have no well-defined red line.

Based on this assessment, the US makes Ukraine part of NATO and moves some bad mil shilt ever closer to Russia.

With sanctions and naval choke points under US control, the US demands Crimea back. Now what?

Your move...


I am a better Russian, German, and a Brit. At least on paper...

A question for PF Brits: When and how was Russia a threat to your country?