Russia Is a Potemkin Superpower

[Mme. Defarge]

Beware, Vladimir Putin: Spring is coming. And when it does, you’ll lose much of whatever leverage you had left.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/opinion/putin-military-sanctions-weakness.html

Incidentally, one puzzle about Russia’s pre-Ukraine image of strength was how a kleptocratic regime managed to have an efficient, effective military. Maybe it didn’t?

Still, Putin has one remaining ace in the hole: Feckless policies have made Europe deeply dependent on Russian natural gas, potentially inhibiting the West’s response to his aggression.

But Europe mainly burns gas for heat; gas consumption is 2.5 times higher in the winter than it is in the summer. Well, winter will soon be over — and the European Union has time to prepare for another winter without Russian gas if it’s willing to make some hard choices.

As I said, Putin may well take Kyiv. But even if he does, he will have made himself weaker, not stronger. Russia now stands revealed as a Potemkin superpower, with far less real strength than meets the eye.

[Midnight Writer]

1. Putin's "ace in the hole" is being a dictator with control over a tremendous nuclear arsenal.

[cilla4progress]

2. Does the West (US)

not have any defensive weapons??? Our treasury for the past 70 years?

Putin needs to be taken out.

How, no idea. He's a madman with nukes.

[Midnight Writer]

4. Sure thing. We dropped trillions on the Star War Missile Defense System. That should save us?

[PoliticAverse]

5. The "Star Wars" middle defense system was never fully funded or completed. n/t

[Irish_Dem]

3. Putin hopes he can threaten his way into global superpower status.

He along with China will be the 21st century world powers.

Now that they have greatly weakened world democracies, autocracies are the wave of the future. They will use the threat of nuclear war to take what they want. Taiwan is next?

At least that is their plan. But they hit a bump in Ukraine.