Well, everyone in the West predicted that Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine (right after the Olympics), and now he’s invading Ukraine (right after the Oympics).
Here’s what I don’t understand. At 6,601,670 square miles, Russia is by far the largest country in the world. The second, largest, Canada, is barely half the size of Russia, and most of its land is frozen anyway.
It’s not like the Russians need “Lebensraum.”
So this is just a naked power grab. The Ukrainians wanted to do their own thing and he just doesn’t want to let them.
But it’s been 30 years since the Soviet Union dissolved, and Vladimir might find that things are no longer as they used to be. He may see them as “cousins,” but they might seem themselves more like the Irish in relationship to the English.
I guess we’ll find out if we really can hurt him by barring him from the international banking system. Maybe he can sell all his oil and natural gas to China. I guess we’ll find out.
I was hoping that Vlad might give us a year or two to recover from the pandemic before he starts World War III.