Putin came out of a different era in the history of Russia, He probably does think in his own mind that he alone was a great leader of Russia. Putin thought he could intimidate the world into believing that Russia was strong militarily. Even China and Iran bought into that one.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine for two years, and Ukraine is being supplied by America and NATO countries, but it is still just Ukraine that is fighting. Now we are watching Ukraine strike back into Russia, nothing like making war visible to the Russian population.
America learned the hard way in Afghanistan and Iraq that war is still not the solution in the 21st century. Just too much visibility for everyone to see. I doubt anyone really wants to see war close up and personal anymore. It is brutal, just like the world has been watching in Gaza this past year. Of course, Israel has not had to deal with actual war, a few missiles once in a while, but nothing as brutal as the leveling of an entire city, like Gaza.
Trying to imagine if Putin actually spent money on infrastructure around Russia or made life better for the average Russian. Russia could then use those advancements to make themselves a strong nation. Instead Putin is rich, the average Russian is poor, and Russia itself is floundering on the world stage.
Ukraine needs to drop some drones on pukeys's palace on the east coast of the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Just links I found, some are 4 years old and it's debatable if pukey has anything to do with this palace. But that is a hockey rink north of the palace and there are russian stories of his playing hockey there with pics and russian reporters. No links about that at this time. But dropping some bombs on that thing would hurt him or his oligarchs who built it for him if so.
And the fear of NATO propaganda line, some here as B402 also ran with:
"If their RADAR systems can't even track a few drones, they are totally vulnerable and left in a non-defensible position for some real heavy hits. I just wish the US/EU coalition would give them the green light already."
To underline the relative paper tiger view - Putin debunks his own propaganda by disarming Russia’s NATO borders [...] For the past twenty-one months, Vladimir Putin has consistently blamed NATO for provoking the invasion of Ukraine. According to the Kremlin dictator, years of NATO expansion posed an escalating security threat to Russia that eventually left the country with no choice but to defend itself. This NATO narrative has proven far more persuasive among international audiences than Russia’s more outlandish propaganda about “Ukrainian Nazis .. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/nato-nazis-satanists-putin-is-running-out-of-excuses-for-his-imperial-war/ ” and “Western Satanists .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/17/russia-ukraine-war-satan-nazis/ .” However, it is now being debunked by Russia’s own actions. From Norway in the Arctic north to Kaliningrad in the west, Russia is making a mockery of Putin’s claims by dramatically reducing its military presence along the country’s borders with the NATO Alliance. If Putin genuinely believed NATO posed a threat to Russia, would he voluntarily disarm his entire front line? [...] Putin’s readiness to demilitarize his country’s borders with neighboring NATO members is damning evidence that the decision to invade Ukraine had nothing to do with an alleged NATO threat to Russia itself. This does not mean his attacks on the Alliance are entirely insincere, of course. The vitriol Putin frequently displays toward NATO is real enough, but it does not reflect any legitimate security concerns. Instead, Putin resents NATO because it thwarts his revanchist agenda and prevents Russia from bullying its neighbors in the traditional manner. In other words, NATO presents no danger whatsoever to Russian national security, but it does pose a very serious threat to Russian imperialism.
This has long been apparent to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, who clamored to join NATO following the fall of the USSR precisely because they sought protection against what was widely seen as the inevitable revival of Russian aggression. Indeed, while Putin equates NATO enlargement with Western expansionism, the post-1991 growth of the Alliance was in fact almost exclusively driven by fear of Russia among the many countries queuing up to join. Their concerns were shaped by decades and in some cases centuries of brutal subjugation at the hands of the Russian Empire in its Tsarist and Soviet forms. If Russians want somebody to blame for the current NATO presence on their doorstep, they would be well advised to look in the mirror.
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