Re: Parting Shot?
I tend to agree with your general assessment. I do not believe that "Vlad The Putinator" wants a hot war with Ukraine and potentially the USA and NATO. Nor do I believe the USA and NATO want it either.
Vlad continues to saber-rattle and make a whole lot of noise. Cyber attacks and intimidation and whatever falls short of bombs and bullets will no doubt continue until he gets what he wants.
In theory this is actually a good opportunity for deal making. Sun Tzu would suggest that we give him what he wants in exchange for what WE want. Smart leaders would pay attention to what Sun Tzu wrote in 'The Art of War', especially the parts about war being expensive and that it should be avoided.
Ultimately Vlad does not want NATO missiles on his border and wants a Ukraine that does what he tells them to do. Vlad might be willing to give things up to get there. We just need to make him see that the easier path (not escalating this) is also the better one. I also have to wonder if the Russian people even support him in this (like he would even care), or even his own troops.
So here's how I think the world needs to deal with this: a) remove NATO troops and missiles and whatnot from Ukraine, on the condition that b) Vlad stops his "bad acting" and does things _LIKE_ shutting down hacker groups and 'fake item' scammers within Russia, stopping support of Iran in any way, yotta yotta (including sending his troops home). Then we stop sanctions, cooperation improves, and everybody is happy. Or that's the general idea. [Unfortunately too many people in power seem to benefit from blaming and saber rattling and keeping the tension as high as possible, on both sides of this, including Vlad himself]
Or we can do it the STUPID way aka "the hard way" and have WW3. And no need to start another cold war either. This is 2022.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
