STEPHENS: WHAT IF PUTIN DIDN'T MISCALCULATE? THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS THAT VLADIMIR PUTIN CATASTROPHICALLY MISCALCULATED. He thought Russian-speaking Ukrainians would welcome his troops. They didn’
STEPHENS: WHAT IF PUTIN DIDN'T MISCALCULATE? THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS THAT VLADIMIR PUTIN CATASTROPHICALLY MISCALCULATED. He thought Russian-speaking Ukrainians would welcome his troops. They didn’
STEPHENS: WHAT IF PUTIN DIDN'T MISCALCULATE?
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS THAT VLADIMIR PUTIN CATASTROPHICALLY MISCALCULATED.
He thought Russian-speaking Ukrainians would welcome his troops. They didn’t. He thought he’d swiftly depose Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government. He hasn’t. He thought he’d divide NATO. He’s united it. He thought he had sanction-proofed his economy. He’s wrecked it. He thought the Chinese would help him out. They’re hedging their bets. He thought his modernized military would make mincemeat of Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainians are making mincemeat of his, at least on some fronts.
Putin’s miscalculations raise questions about his strategic judgment and mental state. Has he lost contact with reality? Is he physically unwell? Mentally? Condoleezza Rice warns: “He’s not in control of his emotions. Something is wrong.” Russia’s sieges of Mariupol and Kharkiv — two heavily Russian
