Forecast

[aphar]

I dare to publicly forecast the near future:

Putin will make a titanic effort to stop the war ASAP, because time is working against him:

• Europe is slowly but surely getting off the gas hook
• The West, especially the US, is ramping up military production capabilities
• Minor Ukrainian successes might be worrisome in a minor way

I wholeheartedly wish him a complete failure in whatever he does, including his "peace" efforts.

Comments

[brevi]

It’s a constrained optimization problem: stop ASAP subject to finding a way to sell the populace on the idea that the whole adventure’s been a success.

[aphar]

The TV-watching zombies will eat everything.

[juan_gandhi]

Seems like nobody, except Lukashenko, cares about what he says.

[aphar]

140M Russians do.

Macron is calling him as if he were drunk and Putin were his ex.

The German leadership was bought by him wholesale.

Erdogan wants to position himself as a regional master, so he is playing all sides.

Iran and China are delighted at the opportunity - and keeping Putin in power and dangerous is critical for their own troublemaking.

[juan_gandhi]

Well, I don't mean three months ago, I mean now, in September. As to China, yes, they must be interested, same as with North Korea. Make him a secret puppet.