Russia’s invasion if Ukraine , for example, makes perfect sense if you’re a dictator surrounded by yes-men blowing smoke up your ass about your amazing military strength for years (while they take the military money and spend it on yachts in the Mediterranean)

I really doubt Putin would make this particular mistake twice though

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None of us can possibly know for sure. But I suspect Russia discovered a trove of leaky US intelligence info was passing through their country, and they told him to either

A) stay in Russia, tell us what you know, and do what we tell you

or B) be murdered.