Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
I know it's probably being suppressed, but in the perfect world this kind of #### up would be thrown back in his face non-stop by the media. Imagine setting out on a voyage to show how strong Russia is against NATO "aggression", only to come back home with NATO having...gotten bigger.
That is a colossal #### up, but I don't imagine it's being told that way on RTR or any of the Russian TV news channels (correct me if I am wrong).
Again, in the perfect world, this is called a fireable offence.
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I think it's obvious from his paranoid behavior that Putin fears for his position. All those draconian laws, desperate short term moves to protect the local economy, and somewhat ridiculous attempts to spin a victory out of the mess in Ukraine. To me he looks very afraid.
Finland and Sweden joining NATO would be a pretty big PR loss for him. There's really no way to spin that as anything but a loss for Putin. At best he can try to vilify everyone and say he tried, but that wouldn't change the basic fact that he failed in his attempt to stop a NATO expansion. It's not something he can hide either.
Now that said, there's a massive barrier to Finland and Sweden joining NATO. The pro-Russian conservative authoritarian Victor Orban just won another election in Hungary, and Hungary like any other NATO-country can block any new countries from joining (If I've understood correctly.)
Now that said, Russia is not looking like a great ally at the moment, and there's plenty of ways EU can also put pressure on Orban, so it's not clear yet which way Orban will go.