Why it's "Game Over" for P* - and he's starting to realize that.

[TygrBright]

Autocracy runs on fear.

It gains power by employing "fear of something worse" than the autocrat, but once the autocrat is firmly in power, it runs on fear of the autocrat and the autocrat's apparatus for inspiring and maintaining that fear.

It works extremely well, as long as people continue to fear.

But what happens when fear of the autocrat is replaced by something else?

Could be fear of something worse than the autocrat - nuclear annihilation, the deaths of children, etc.

Or it could be hope of something better than the autocrat.

Most powerful is a combination of the two.

And both of those conditions now exist in *P's area of control.

He's done.

Because fear is the ONLY tool he has left to use.

The sanctions have deprived him of the ability to deploy greed for his purposes.

He only ever had fear and greed, really.

Then, just fear.

And now it's failing.

I wish for him only enlightenment.

determinedly,
Bright

[Tetrachloride]

1. I am sorry to disagree. He isn't thru stage 2 of denial and maybe not stage 1

It ain’t beginning to be over until a general is captured alive, until an oligarch does something dramatic to change Russian public opinion and until Trump is put in handcuffs at least once — by law enforcement.

Then Pooty might feel some metaphorical apocalypse

[BlueIdaho]

15. Sociopaths don't grieve.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Trump, or Putin, or any other sociopath. The only way to reach them is convince them that what they are doing will 100% lead to the most horrible personal devastation possible.

[Joinfortmill]

2. I wish for him permanent darkness. Light out.

[SharonClark]

3. I'll believe it when I see it happen.

Until then, Putin remains in power because he’s an autocrat and controls all aspects of government.

The people have no power and the wealthy like him for helping to make them rich. Who is powerful enough to challenge him?

[Tommymac]

4. Game has just begun. Not over until Putin is removed from the Board.

It will be a long haul. Putin has many tricks to play. He has kept his population ignorant of the facts - and it will take months to re-educate just a part of them.

Look at what the Right Wing channels and reTHUGlican propaganda have done in the US over the last 6 years. We are nowhere near deprogramming a third of our population even with the Freedoms we enjoy.

The most dangerous phase is still to come...when Putin feels cornered, will he push the button?

[GB_RN]

16. They've Been At It Here For Far Longer Than Six Years...

Reich Wing radio has been at it since the mid 80s with the end of the Equal Time provision and Faux Nuz has been at it since '97 or so.

[MineralMan]

5. Well, unless he responds with anger.

I'd rather not see that happen.

[Metaphorical]

6. Oh, I would disagree on this.

One of the goals of a good military strategist is to fluster one's enemies. To make them react rather than plan, and to make foolish mistakes rather than execute well-designed maneuvers. Putin's beginning to do that. He's losing control of the army and of his intelligence apparatus. He's making strategically weak moves and is losing ground because his generals are becoming more terrified of being killed by enemy fire than they are of being fired by him. These are not the signs of someone who is in control.

The fear, really the only fear that everyone has, is that he will go nuclear, yet I have to wonder. He's been trying to attach Chernobyl to create a nuclear pretext, something that would be easier to do if he was to lob a nuclear missile at Kyiv. I don't think he hasn't done it because he doesn't want to, but because he can't - no one is willing to go that far in Russia, and perhaps because he knows that if he does attempt to go nuclear, the Russian Army will depose him.

[MineralMan]

7. I have no idea what goes on in Putin's mind.

I also don't know what the readiness of Russia's nuclear arsenal is. I have no knowledge of how it can be deployed, and on whose orders.

There is much that is unknown about Putin's regime, really. We like to think we know, but we really don't.

I can see, though, that his military forces are not really in full readiness. I think that's interesting. At the time I was in the USAF, and doing the job I had, there were already signs that the Soviet military was not everything it was cracked up to be. Then, Afghanistan gave us some more clues. That attempted occupation played a large role in the breakdown of the Soviet Union. That was after my time in the military, though.

Putin has more or less shown his hand. I'm betting he wishes he hadn't.

[AntiFascist]

14. Here's a message from a supposed FSB whistleblower...

if true, it provides a lot of insight into what's going on with Russian intelligence:

https://pastebin.com/2agMRGmd

...

Is there a possibility of a local nuclear strike? Yes. Not for military purposes (it will not give anything - this is a defense breakthrough weapon), but with the aim of intimidating others. At the same time, the soil is being prepared to turn everything to Ukraine - Naryshkin and his SVR are now digging the earth to prove that they secretly created nuclear weapons there. Damn, they are now hammering on what we have long studied and dismantled:

...

From the cynical, I will only add that I do not believe that VV Putin will press the red button to destroy the whole world.
Firstly, there is more than one person making a decision, at least someone will jump off. And there are a lot of people there - there is no "one-man red button".

[Wounded Bear]

8. Your keyboard to god's monitor...

[Eyeball_Kid]

9. Putin MUST believe that he has a mission to complete. He has at least that much of humanity in him.

Putin to the generals and the FSB officials whom he just fired: Tell me what I want to hear and make it sound like it's what I want to know. If you tell me something that doesn't fit with what really happens, then you're fired and don't come back here again.

That's life under the rule of a despot. Putin wants everyone to please him. So they do. They tell him lies about the war. When he finds that what they tell him isn't a description of the real world, they get punished. So if you're an underling, you can't tell Putin the truth (his military is weak and out of control) without getting fired, and you can't lie to him because you'll get fired.

[IronLionZion]

10. As Russians are increasingly isolated,

they will have nothing to compare it to. They won't know how bad they have it if they can't see that life is great in the free west.

That's why some experts are suggesting we don't cut ordinary Russians off completely from cultural exchange stuff, just focus on the financial punishments for wealthy oligarchs.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Hope you're right, but fear you're not. Nt

[Warpy]

12. He's finding out Ukraine isn't Chechnya or even Georgia

but I sincerely doubt he realizes that while he might slaughter enough people to take it, there is no way he can hold onto it.

Unfortunately, that's going to take a while, during which badly trained and supplied Russian troops will simply flatten everything in sight and when all they can see are heaps of rubble, they'll flatten those some more.

He's fired the yes sir generals who got the campaign wrong. No word on the yes men in the Kremlin who got the whole thing wrong.

[Jetheels]

13. I doubt Putrid will be done with Ukraine until he's bombed the entire country to smithereens

and captured Zalenskyy. That’s the only way he can save face.
His reputation however is done in the west.
Psychopaths don’t become enlightened.

[Paper Roses]

17. I wish I had faith in your post but sadly:

I think Putin will go as far as he can without holding back. I hope the heck someone takes care of him. The people of Ukraine do not deserve this hell than has come to them.

[musclecar6]

18. One thing

Is certain. He is a psychopath/sociopath just like Hitler was. No doubt he has some flunkies who are just as deranged as he is, happily doing his bidding, who are frothing at the mouth to do terrible things to the people of Ukraine (and other countries he conquers), just like the Gestapo and the SS did back in the day.