Putin has every reason to want to stoke the conflicts in the middle east and have America spread thin in sending military aid. He wants to outlast the US/Western opposition to his invasion of Ukraine. Since the US/West have liberal democracies and freedom of the press he thinks that America, a country in a much better material position than Russia will tire of sending aid to Ukraine.
The thing is, he could be right. It's entirely up to the American people. It the American people vote for and support politicians that are unwilling to aid Ukraine then Putin will probably get his way. He will win.
Putin exploits weak US military responses. Any vacuum in leadership that the US has Putin sweeps into.
He funds Venezuela and their horrible failed state. He funds Assad and is solely responsible for Assad remaining in power due to his intervention. He supports Iran and vicariously Iran's geopolitical aims.
While Putin may be able to play chess pretty well against the West he has cornered himself when it comes to China. Russia needs it's relationship with China more than the other way around. After isolating himself from the West he needs to have China open to Russian exports. This means that over time unless there is a complete 180 in Russian or Chinese policy Russia ends up becoming essentially a subordinate of China.
What I find when I look into countries like Russia/China/Iran is that there is this nationalist pride and internal belief that they will end up as some great glorious state that is filled with hubris and is quite dumb and actually against the interests of even their own people. This throws people in the US and in the west off-guard. People think there is some great long term plan or some sort of intelligence behind these countries maneuvering when at the bottom of it all is quite frankly just mindless and crass worldviews. That cannot possibly lead to their or anyone's betterment.
This shouldn't be taken lightly though. Look at the worldview of the Nazis, it was bafflingly dumb, their aims even more idiotic and unrealistic. It doesn't matter how dumb the Nazis or Imperial Japanese or whomever in WWII were they still are responsible for the deaths of millions.
Putin has every reason to want to stoke the conflicts in the middle east and have America spread thin in sending military aid. He wants to outlast the US/Western opposition to his invasion of Ukraine. Since the US/West have liberal democracies and freedom of the press he thinks that America, a country in a much better material position than Russia will tire of sending aid to Ukraine.
The thing is, he could be right. It's entirely up to the American people. It the American people vote for and support politicians that are unwilling to aid Ukraine then Putin will probably get his way. He will win.
Putin exploits weak US military responses. Any vacuum in leadership that the US has Putin sweeps into.
He funds Venezuela and their horrible failed state. He funds Assad and is solely responsible for Assad remaining in power due to his intervention. He supports Iran and vicariously Iran's geopolitical aims.
While Putin may be able to play chess pretty well against the West he has cornered himself when it comes to China. Russia needs it's relationship with China more than the other way around. After isolating himself from the West he needs to have China open to Russian exports. This means that over time unless there is a complete 180 in Russian or Chinese policy Russia ends up becoming essentially a subordinate of China.
What I find when I look into countries like Russia/China/Iran is that there is this nationalist pride and internal belief that they will end up as some great glorious state that is filled with hubris and is quite dumb and actually against the interests of even their own people. This throws people in the US and in the west off-guard. People think there is some great long term plan or some sort of intelligence behind these countries maneuvering when at the bottom of it all is quite frankly just mindless and crass worldviews. That cannot possibly lead to their or anyone's betterment.
This shouldn't be taken lightly though. Look at the worldview of the Nazis, it was bafflingly dumb, their aims even more idiotic and unrealistic. It doesn't matter how dumb the Nazis or Imperial Japanese or whomever in WWII were they still are responsible for the deaths of millions.