Do you think Putin expected such a severe push back from the whole world?

I think he thought he would be able to mow down all Ukrainians without anybody noticing, his Russian Mafia buddies are running and trying to hide.

I don’t think he cared what the rest of the world thought, most dictators only care about power.

I think he expected the invasion to be over before the world had time to respond with sanctions.
Expected to just blitzkrieg into Kiev, depose and kill the government and install a puppet dictator.

I don’t think he expected this strong a pushback.

I don’t think he expected this. Nor do I think his cronies thought it would go this way.

His buddies in the Russian Mafia are running to Maldives and other places where they can’t extradited to USA. They are on multi-million dollar yachts, 200 foot long, with food and supplies for months.

@Tropical_Willie But the jokes on them because the Maldives are sinking into the ocean! You can run but you can’t hide. I’ll bet they’re pretty upset.

@janbb Yup and some of them spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine, so yes really PISSED !

His soldiers were told they would be greeted like liberators.

I think he either expected the Ukrainian people to surrender; or, he is a psychotic voyeur and it’s a game for him like watching people fight and die in the colosseum.

I would think he anticipated this reaction, and all that prep time allowed he and his fellow gangsters to hide, mask and bury their assets. The Russian kleptocrats have decades of experience perfecting the techniques undermining sanctions.

We saw what one screwed up ruler would do. Now we are seeing an even more power hunger ruler do it. Thank goodness for democracy to thwart the first one.

I think he underestimated the leaders of Ukraine. Don’t know IF you’ve heard yet or not…Ukraine is offering a special deal to ALL Russian soldiers. This first wave of soldiers are mainly conscripts who were told they were being shipped to Crimea for training. Reality is they were dropped in Ukraine with people shooting at them. They were also told that the Ukrainian population would view them as liberators NOT the enemy. Now the Ukraine government is offering them compensation IF they will surrender. They are being offered 500 MILLION rubles & a safe place to live to switch sides. Just guessing that’s a LOT more than they are being paid to be shot at!!!

Article about Russian POW’s will be released to their mothers if their moms want to come get them. https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/03/02/ukraine-will-release-russian-pows-to-their-mothers-if-they-come-get-them-personally/?swcfpc=1&fbclid=IwAR2QYgm-T4FDl6y7wchFbUJpo3udmKbzpewX-QBDtGrP4EQHJ-tQlykexWA

Regarding the post above mine, I read 5 million rubels to switch sides.

Seems Putin had significant plans relative to banking, but that got shut down so now he’s screwed: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/3/2083608/-Putin-Spent-7-Years-on-a-Plan-that-Would-Blow-Up-in-His-Face?pm_source=story_sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended

@LadyMarissa do you have a source for your claim that the first wave of soldiers were tricked into winding up in Ukraine?

@Dutchess_III
There are videos of captured russian soldiers stating that.
Though of course they could have been forced to say that for propaganda purposes.

I don’t know. It would depend if he is in good mental health, or if all those years of paranoia have affected his thinking making him unable to think rationally.

I’m reading the first edition of Mause, and OMG. Putin is doing exactly the same thing as Hitler.

@Dutchess_III Yes, he is but apparently someone forgot to tell him what year we live in.

Putin also claims that the Ukrainian government are “Nazis”.
Zelensky is Jewish, and Putin bombed a Ukranian Holocaust museum.

Zelensky had family murdered in the Holocaust. It’s insulting, hurtful, and absurd to imply he is like Hitler or antisemitic.

This Nazi Hitler bullshit is the same thing going on America for years now where Russia and terrorist organizations use social media targeted at people on the left to convince them right wing leaders are like the Nazis and also target the right wing to compare left wing leaders as Nazis. It’s all to divide the countries and conquer!

On a side note, I recently watched the WS episode of Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller on National Geographic (I’ve mentioned this before) and she traces back a lot of the leadership and training to Ukraine! Here’s the link https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-mariana-van-zeller/episode-guide/season-02/episode-06-white-supremacy/vdka25839232 So, It’s probably easy to create propaganda that Ukraine is full of racists. It’s easy in the US too, we have plenty of groups here to single out and make it seem like half the country is NeoNazi.