Vladimir Putin seems to favor wearing suits, but he might as well start festooning his jacket with all the medals he’s earning in his war on Ukraine. It seems very clear the quick “special military operation” is not going according to plan, I’d be pretty nervous if I were one of Putin’s military advisers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see some different generals sitting at those faraway tables during the Russian leader’s “meetings.” It may start to look like the old pre-Photoshop days when certain Soviet top advisers mysteriously disappeared from official photos (and existence).
The saddest part of an out-of-control warmonger is of course the civilians who suffer. The number of refugees fleeing the horrific war in Ukraine just surpassed four million—worse than the United Nation’s worst-case predictions before the war. In addition to suffering Ukrainians, people in Russia are suffering under the oppressive regime of a tyrant who has ramped up crackdowns on the press and protesters—not to mention the fact that Russia has now become a pariah state with a cratering economy.