Quote:
Originally Posted by Thor
I don't think he's capable of going far enough to start an all out war, even he can't be that stupid, but he's going to push where he senses weakness and sadly the EU and especially eastern EU is rife with pickings for this new way of waging warfare, the proxy, deniability "rebellion" style war might just be the first of many.
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I think this is a key difference. Germany didn't have any real economic or political clout to leverage at the time, which made physical force the only real path that was open to Hitler (which I would also argue suited him just fine....). It could also be argued that Germany took on too much too fast (possibly out of necessity), but that's just a theory.
Putin has proven to be very smart, and undoubtedly understands that he can wield Russia's size, wealth, resources, and cultural influence to gain de facto control over areas that he covets. And of course, the military *is* there when the going gets tough or he wishes to expedite things (ex. Ukraine).
In my opinion, Putin has a stronger deck of cards to play the game with. It's scary to think that he may also be a better game player....but I'm still torn on that one.