I don't think that has been the narrative though. That's not what I've gotten from the news cycle at least... I agree in that trying to take ukraine in a week is pure madness. But there are apparently credible reports that this is what russia was going for. With them calculating a substantial portion of the ukranian population and military would support them (which obviously didn't happen).
The russian world bit definitely plays into this, I don't think anyone could dispute this at this point. That said, I don't see what russia is getting out of this anymore. Initial optimistic assumptions aside, the war has definitely stalled. And russia is still a relatively small economy, it's just not built for a prologued conflict of this scale. Let alone against such a huge target that is getting every ounce of support it can get without triggering a nuclear war.
Putin is almost definitely not a communist. I think he is on record saying communism is a bit of a dead end? Trying to frame putin as a communist or capitalist is probably a mistake though. Putin just doesn't seem to prioritize the economy. I don't get the impression his views are framed around that. Even articles around how russia will handle sanctions don't really mention how the people's pockets and stomachs will be kept healthy. Most of it is just "fuck the sanctions and maybe china will help". Putin is probably closer to fascists in this sense. Putting the soil, blood and motherland ahead of the people and economy and whatnot. He definitely does not care for democracy. So in framed in a more western way in terms of right-left wing... I suppose he'd be a... anti democratic left of center socially conservative?
I this reports are our spin to strenghten Selenskyi. I think the goal is to cut as much out as possible but the priority is in the conflict itself. Europe is a construct, it is not real, The continent is called Eurasia. What Putin did is he hit this construct with a wrecking ball. There isn't just Ukraine. The only non-EU country that could join asap is Iceland (assuming Norway, UK and Switzerland never want to join [again]), everything else is problematic and most of these problems are somewhat related to Russia. Europe isn't ready for all of this. There is so much potential for more and more conflict and division.
Russia isn't that poor, they have a huge amount of resources. It's just that the wealth is very unequally distributed, many times more than in most other places in the world and afaik even more than the US. But I don't think they will starve they produce enough food.
Their economy is also highly geared towards supporting Russia Republic (out of I think 84 that make up the Russian Federation), and within Russia proper, the Moscow and Petersburg areas.
I think he isn't just counting on China. The longer this conflict goes on, the less the non-European world will care. And what Russia can offer, gas and oil and stuff is very valuable. Ukraine is a faraway place for most of the world and if we are honest the only reason we are so involved and upset here is because it is Europe. I even think had this happened in the questionable parts of Europe (Kaukasus, Kazakhstan*), we wouldn't care half as much and rather take the gas, and had this happened somewhere within Russia (which also has happened as Russia actually isn't just Russia) we wouldn't care at all.
Arguably, even the US, prior to Putin's invasion that they even warned about themselves, still half assed their involvment, and I still think they too thought he isn't going to invade anyways (or maybe no further than Donbass) and we just keep up these games to stop the North Stream 2 pipeline.
*I mean, wtf happened in Kazakhstan? See, its true, no one cares.
I hope the west will take a lesson from this. They really thought they could yolo through the Soviet collapse. Everyone should go and blame their parents because that generation really fucked up, it's not just the Soviet collapse, we also lost our chance to stop climate change over a blowjob lol wtf. I love the 90s for my childhood but politically it was too much cocaine, only possible explanation.
From now on, we will have to get better! I think Putin wants to spend his remaining 30 years in his castle in his "Russian World", but I think what he plans for his legacy is what we should be worried about: And that is destroying democracy. He is not the only one trying and time will make people stop caring about this conflict.
www.cnn.com
