Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointman
Two key points:
1. Putin has been becoming increasingly insulated and misinformed
2. Putin does not act like his usual self. Yet no signs of being mentally unstable
Could it mean that:
It's not Putin, but rather some part of his inner circle, that is behind this war? US Intel almost point blank says that Putin was misled into this catastrophic mistake and now appears to be mad about it. I by no mean try to justify Putin, who bears full responsibility and should be trialed. However, this Intel somewhat alter the conventional narrative that it's Putin's plan and his inner circle is horrified of it.
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I wouldn't say so.
Leaders being misinformed is a problem dating back to at least to Stalins era in Russia, but they are also 100% responsible for it.
The misinformation is due to a tradition of punishing the messenger. If you get punished for telling there's a problem, or saying that something the leader wants is impossible or a bad idea, then you stop saying that and let the leader believe everything is fine. When you spread this attitude over a whole society, the country becomes impossible to lead effectively, as the difference between what people at the top think is the reality and the actual reality keeps growing.
After the Soviet Union ended and Finns provided them help intended to help build a modern democracy, Russian statisticians were often blown away by the idea that the statistics should not be affected by political desires.
Most likely this attack is Putin's plan, but no one can tell him the real reasons why the attack is failing and why Putin overestimated the capability of his forces, because that would mean people around him would have to start admitting they've been lying about a lot of things. (And been rewarded by Putin for those lies.)