Putin wants Ukraine to officially cede the eastern part of the country

and Crimea (the parts with large ethnically Russian populations). And he seems to have decided that the best way to achieve this is to overthrow the pro-western Ukrainian government with a puppet ruler aligned to Russia.

I don't think the plan is to permanently occupy or conquer all of Ukraine in an imperial sense. But to annex just part of it, and make the rest a kind of vassal state.

The old Soviet Union is pretty similar to the old Yugoslavia. In that when it split up, some fairly arbitrary borders were drawn on the map, with certain ethnic groups ending up living under a government that doesn't represent them. This allows a militaristic ruler like Putin to invade under the pretext that he is liberating a region.

In his mind, he then secures his legacy of 'uniting the Russian peoples'. And will die thinking he will go down in history alongside Catherine the Great et al..

Posted By: Mecagoenti, Feb 25, 14:37:00