We’ve arrived at a stage when avoiding escalation to a Russia-NATO conflict is going to take luck or effort. Existing guardrails are eroding by the day if not the hour.
so... the implications of an isolated, angry Putin presiding over a grinding, existential conventional war and an economy devastated by sanctions are really terrifying. The chances of his accepting "defeat" are far lower than the chances he escalates dramatically.
It seems to me that the only well planned part of this entire play has been the military piece. No one beyond the military and the services seems to have even been in the loop. I wouldn’t be surprised if the post-invasion plan is about as good as the US one in Iraq was.
I spoke to President Putin this morning. He refuses to stop his attacks on Ukraine at this point. It is vital to maintain dialogue to avoid human tragedy. I will continue my efforts and contacts. We must avoid the worst.
The longer this goes on, the more brutal it is likely to get. And we haven't seen the most destructive Russian capabilities employed yet: indirect fires, unguided bombs, etc.
This Putin address to the Security Council is absolutely terrifying. Not showing any hint of compromise. Glorifying the "bravery" of Russian forces and doubling down on the "Nazi" rhetoric re: Ukraine. Extremely emotional. Blood curdling.
Main takeaway from that barnburner of a speech is that Russia now has given itself a pretext to respond to "attacks" on DNR and LNR with no need to conceal its direct military involvement. thread 1/x
Seems like cruise missiles are flying. This is going to be very big. Nothing limited about Putin's speech or this military operation. This is a big war.
Just saw a
@WSJ
headline that the Dow is up 600 points because Russia "agreed" to talks with the Ukrainian leadership, confirming once again that markets simply cannot accept the reality of how bad this is going to get. It's verging on delusional.
One gets the sense that folks in this town smell blood in the proverbial water regarding the stability of the (odious) Putin regime. Let's file that under "careful what you wish for". Thread. 1/7
Having watched the Putin-Scholz presser in its entirety I see no cause for optimism. NATO issue still front and center. Putin demanding an answer immediately. And calling what’s happening in the Donbas “genocide.” Does not bode well.
There has been a significant though subtle shift in Russian war aims in the last week. Before, it was nothing less than regime change. Now it’s clear they would accept a negotiated settlement. Granted, their current demands are outlandish. And they might still try to oust Ze. 1/2
Glad to see that the FBI has mastered snark in Russian. Using the Putin dressing down of SVR head Naryshkin in an ad calling for CI tips. “Speak directly, we are ready to listen.”
Информация, предоставляемая ФБР населением, является наиболее эффективным средством борьбы с угрозами. Если вы располагаете информацией, которая может помочь ФБР, просим вас обратиться к нам.
The Putin rant on Poland with set propaganda piece from Naryshkin does not bode well...It's one thing for Soloviev to say things like that, but what's the point of making a big show of this at a televised Security Council meeting unless something is in the works...
Wonder what it's going to take for the skeptics to believe that Russia is preparing for a major military operation. There is absolutely no need to be doing what Moscow is doing unless they're creating the option for something qualitatively bigger than anything we've seen 1/2
The real loser here is of course Putin. He let his own Frankenstein get out of hand. He will pay the price in prestige and authority. Prigozhin will be gone soon enough but the damage will be permanent.
Regime change in Russia might seem like the only way out of this tragedy. But on closer examination it poses huge risks and is no more likely to make things better, than it is to make them worse. 7/7
The scenario of a liberal reformist successor coming to power who begs forgiveness for Putin's sins would be great, but it would also be great to win the lottery. Equally if not more plausible are regime change scenarios that work out badly for everyone, Ukraine included.2/7
one comment from a source of theirs: "we don't have enough sobyanins [Moscow mayor -- known as a competent manager]" to manage Ukraine. "We don't even have enough Beglovs [St. Petersburg mayor, known as a completely incompetent manager]." END
Happy to announce that I've been named Inaugural Distinguished Chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy
@RANDCorporation
. I appreciate the vote of confidence and look forward to continuing RAND's long tradition of important work on the region.
Re: peace talks: Lots of skepticism out there about
@ZelenskyyUa
's efforts to find a negotiated solution. Or rather skepticism about Russia's sincerity. Skepticism is more than warranted. But let's be clear. There will be a deal to end the war. 1/5
no one (among the "civilians") had any idea this was coming until the invasion had already started. not in the Government, prez admin, etc. Suggests the political planning is nonexistent. (consistent with what we're seeing) 3/x
But I don’t think they were open to something short of decapitation/total surrender 7-10 days ago. A testament to the utter failure of their initial war plan and the resilience of the Ukrainians. 2/2
Belarus announced joint drills with Russia to be held in February aimed against Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian military build-up. Lukashenko: "Ukraine keeps concentrating its radical nationalists from the National Guard next to our border. They are even worse than NATO troops".
Given the intensity of fighting in the Donbas, it seems like there's a push ongoing to extend Russian control to the oblast borders before possible signing of a ceasefire. That's going to be tough given how dug in the Ukrainian JFO is. 1/3
Wow, China is going all in on the bio labs conspiracy theorizing. Next Beijing will reveal the original “Dulles Plan” and the long lost video of Madeline Albright claiming that Siberia is the 51st state.
So I think
#Putin
has now set a record for most demands for legal guarantees of
#NATO
non-enlargement made in a single day. Apparently UK, Finnish and French leaders got the same ultimatum today.
This regime is unlikely to go down without a fight against enemies domestic and foreign, real and imagined. Regime security = national security in the leaders' minds, and they'll treat threats to the former as threats to the latter. 3/7
Now RBC reports that Putin will speak tomorrow on the "referendums". Note that he has not yet said anything definitive on annexation. If the reporting is right, he's tying his own hands. Not good. Definitely a sign of desperation.
well, this is an interesting plot twist: "US officials told the Financial Times that Russia had requested military equipment and other assistance since the start of the invasion. ... some indications that China may be preparing to help Russia."
whereas before this, Russia didn't have a justification for overt military intervention even under its own laws, now it will. This is an important element of the narrative that was missing. 3/x
The Ukrainian resistance has clearly exceeded Moscow’s expectations — consistent with the Russian elite’s chauvinistic dismissiveness of Ukrainians’ ability to succeed at anything. Recall expectations of a “failed state” etc in 2014-2015. 1/2
If anyone has an idea of what a stable endgame is, I'd love to hear it. Not clear that any government involved in this conflict has one — at least a plausibly sustainable one.
@scharap
@ZelenskyyUa
One problem with this invasion that severely complicates planning is that it's impossible to imagine Putin's idea of the end state. I increasingly feel he's replaying Gulf II with all mistakes (such as remove Saddam and it'll be a democracy) with only a fraction of resources.
In other words, the strategic rationale for launching a major offensive is greater than it was before today. The Kremlin just swallowed its other bargaining chip. END.
It's hard to take pleasure in a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the world's largest country with the most nuclear warheads, rapidly sliding to rogue-state status. While Russia certainly deserves it, the consequences will be felt globally, for decades to come.
Keep in mind that Russian strategists have long posited that the (US) attempt to take them down will combine threats on the periphery, domestic unrest, and external military aggression. see ch 4 of the report
@MassDara
and I co-led: 4/7
clearly the legal niceties wouldn't have stopped Russia, but they always need some way of portraying their actions as something other than aggression. As Peskov put it yesterday, Russia has never attacked anyone ever, or something like that. 4/x
New piece out today with
@DrRadchenko
@ForeignAffairs
on the history of the 2022 Istanbul talks and why they failed. We attempted to do justice to a complicated story 1/3
Seems like Russia is preparing to publicly reframe “victory” as neutrality plus its territorial demands. No more demilitarization and de-whatever. Still not viable for Kyiv but getting closer.
The best thing the US can do to help Ukraine is to convince Putin that de-escalation is a less costly and risky option for him than continuing the war. Calling for regime change or assassination does the opposite.
Among the more striking aspects of the intl reaction to the war has been the breadth and depth of the (well-deserved) global outrage and the resulting acceleration of economic and political consequences for Russia not led by govts. 1/2
Effective propaganda relies on a kernel of truth. The narrative here has been invented out of thin air. Unsurprising that this has failed spectacularly. US disclosures of their planning helped too.
For all the fears over the last nearly 10 years about the Russian hybrid/information warfare capabilities and troll armies, they have completely lost the information war over this invasion of Ukraine
I see there's a lot of renewed interest on twitter in pre-war predictions about how Russia would fight. The bottom line is that no one I'm aware of predicted how (badly) Moscow would mess up the initial invasion. THREAD 1/
It is interesting that we haven’t seen any sign of Russian networks within Ukrainian state structures being used in this operation. At least not yet. Possibly an indication they weren’t in the loop. Or they didn’t exist. Too early to say for sure.
This argument basically amounts to an assertion that the west should be prepared to sacrifice thousands of Ukrainians in the name of weakening Russia. Besides its immorality, this argument significantly understates the damage the war will do to the west.
Well, we avoided one escalation pathway. But this is a symptom of a broader problem: well-intentioned efforts to help with lots of cooks in the kitchen accompanied by a lot of (well-deserved) anger and things could get out of hand, fast. Efforts need coordination.
It's official - Europe won't transfer fighter planes to Ukraine. Poland decided not to, and Slovakian defense ministry spokesperson confirms to me just now: “Slovakia will not provide fighter jets to Ukraine."
Since everyone is looking for military and informational signs of Russia’s seriousness (or not) about launching an invasion, it might make sense to also think about signs that the diplomatic track might actually be more than Kabuki theater/time-buying tactic/ point-scoring/ 1/9
@EmmaMAshford
@scharap
@scharap
is persistently taking a pro-Putin line, just like you, ignoring the freedom and human rights of smaller countries in its neighborhood. Is that smart?
So since I've garnered a number of new followers this weekend, I thought I'd follow up on the substance of the discussion around my
@POLITICOMag
article. A thread.
Since there has been a lot of interest in a pre-war argument my colleague Scott Boston and I made about military assistance to Ukraine, I'm happy to admit that we were (partially) wrong. But it's important to understand why we were wrong, rather than engage in point scoring 1/8
New
@ForeignAffairs
piece out today on
#Russia
-
#ukraine
war and how it’s likely to end. And what the US can do about it. An Unwinnable War | Foreign Affairs
The DNR/LNR "recognition" decision has left Putin with little choice but to seek full control of the regions. It has also seriously complicated any political settlement. No Ukrainian govt would agree to give up Donetsk and Luhansk. 2/3
With all due respect for
@IvoHDaalder
, I find this line particularly unconvincing: "Putin worries that if any of these states becomes a successful and prosperous democracy, let alone fully integrates with the west, the Russian people will demand the same." Thread
An interesting op-ed by
@IvoHDaalder
: . Argues that the US must go all in to aid Ukraine in order to stop the "revival of Russian expansionism." I tend to side with
@scharap
in that it's unlikely that any such a build-up will alter the odds for Ukraine.
Feels like we have schizophrenia on Russia-China these days. One day Beijing is on the verge of arming Russia, and now "China rolls back unconditional support for Russia".
That said, we should not lose sight of the tactical implications. Rather than retreat, the Russian military is likely to double down and resort to far more brutality. 2/2
The bottom line is that (from Moscow's perspective) half-measures have failed for 8 years. And it doesn't take this kind of force to continue with them... 2/2
One gets the sense another major Russian miscalculation is coming. if this is meant to scare Ukraine and the West into capitulating, it's not going to work. 1/2