Are the Russian people willing to go to war?

[RockRaven]

11. It doesn't matter what they want. They have no say.

And the Russian military proper will use proxies to the maximum degree possible, such as the separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine trying to conscript at gunpoint every able bodied man they can get their hands on.

One of the lessons the Russian military learned from the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan was the importance of hiding the true casualties. They have recently put that lesson into practice in the Chechnya and Georgia conflicts. They will no doubt do so again here, and their task will be aided by the fact that many of the deaths will occur amongst Russian-speaking Ukrainians used as cannon fodder such as the rebels and conscripts noted above.