Mr. Putin is clearly a slow learner. He is not recognizing that what he is doing is actually creating the animosity against his people. He's not acting in the best interest of the Russian people, and he is actually causing NATO to rearm and to strengthen the democracy stance, the unified stance of all the democracies together.
Will Putin listen to Mattis? Or does Putin need high-ranking Russian advisors to tell him he is effing up royally?
[What about] all the talk of how Putin is so clever to play a bad hand so well? Get real.
Russia has alienated the West which was not a military threat to Russia by pointless threats to the West given weight by Russian invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, even though the West was willing to help Russia upgrade their defense industry until 2014; while China stole and then surpassed Russian military technology and production methods.
And recall that China has dormant claims on Russian Far Eastern territory with a treaty keeping those claims dormant up for cancellation in 2021.
Putin isn't brilliant. He is weakening Russia's economy, failing to arrest the decline of Russia's defense industries, alienating potential allies, and strengthening potential enemies all for the "glory" of Abhkazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, parts of the Donbas, and bases in Assad's Syria.
And he's not that impressive riding a horse bare-chested, truth be told.
Chimps with nukes.
What Western plot could be as effective at wrecking Russia than Putin himself? Seriously, why isn't there a conspiracy theory floating around Russia on that possibility?
I assume a Russian advisor would revise the Mattis clue bat. But somebody in Moscow needs to swing it. Hard.
