I mean, we know Putin’s primary source of income (and hence his power in the world) is the natural gas he sells to Western Europe via a pipeline running through Ukraine. And we know that significant natural gas reserves were recently discovered in the Donbas region of Ukraine, which despite the overall clusterfuck nature of Russia’s invasion has remained solidly under Russian control since the start of all this. Is it that hard to see this invasion as the successful elimination of a business competitor?
There are a lot of things in play. Another optional goal is to tighten up the local russian backgarden. Just like it was before Crimea snatching, population was rather frustrated with the powerholders, some bigger protests brewed in capital cities, and although they were even smaller than back then pre-Crimea, I see it as a sub-motivation, and them freely killing Navalny just after that, rolling out laws groving in their restrictiveness - I think these were their goals all along.
I mean, we know Putin’s primary source of income (and hence his power in the world) is the natural gas he sells to Western Europe via a pipeline running through Ukraine. And we know that significant natural gas reserves were recently discovered in the Donbas region of Ukraine, which despite the overall clusterfuck nature of Russia’s invasion has remained solidly under Russian control since the start of all this. Is it that hard to see this invasion as the successful elimination of a business competitor?
There are a lot of things in play. Another optional goal is to tighten up the local russian backgarden. Just like it was before Crimea snatching, population was rather frustrated with the powerholders, some bigger protests brewed in capital cities, and although they were even smaller than back then pre-Crimea, I see it as a sub-motivation, and them freely killing Navalny just after that, rolling out laws groving in their restrictiveness - I think these were their goals all along.