I’m not an expert or anything, but I like to watch analysis on geopolitics and I heard a couple of times that it would also be a way to gain the legitimacy to enroll more people to an unpopular war because Putin knows it’s not going to end well for him if the war ends. The war is getting very unpopular in Russia. It would be bad economically to transition back to peace since normal jobs are already scarce and not very lucrative compared to the jobs linked to the war. People wouldn’t have as much money to spend and it would cause the economy to spiral down even more.
If NATO does nothing, with a handful of drone strikes, Putin could scare some countries into keeping their ammunition and military equipment for themselves instead of sending them to Ukraine. He also could demonstrate that NATO is weak and indecisive. If NATO does something he could claim he was right and that Russia must mobilize if it wants to survive turning the conflict into an existential crisis and hopefully (for him) convincing the Russians that the war is necessary.
At first I was puzzled too, but after hearing this rational it kinda made sense to me why Putin would poke NATO like that.
Edit: Also, I heard there is a political party that is openely agaisnt the war. I don’t remember its name, but the party’s logo is an apple and russians are sharing short videos of them eating an apple or having an apple somewhere in the video as a way to support the party’s message. I thought I would add this since I’ve found it interesting.
I’m not an expert or anything, but I like to watch analysis on geopolitics and I heard a couple of times that it would also be a way to gain the legitimacy to enroll more people to an unpopular war because Putin knows it’s not going to end well for him if the war ends. The war is getting very unpopular in Russia. It would be bad economically to transition back to peace since normal jobs are already scarce and not very lucrative compared to the jobs linked to the war. People wouldn’t have as much money to spend and it would cause the economy to spiral down even more.
If NATO does nothing, with a handful of drone strikes, Putin could scare some countries into keeping their ammunition and military equipment for themselves instead of sending them to Ukraine. He also could demonstrate that NATO is weak and indecisive. If NATO does something he could claim he was right and that Russia must mobilize if it wants to survive turning the conflict into an existential crisis and hopefully (for him) convincing the Russians that the war is necessary.
At first I was puzzled too, but after hearing this rational it kinda made sense to me why Putin would poke NATO like that.
Edit: Also, I heard there is a political party that is openely agaisnt the war. I don’t remember its name, but the party’s logo is an apple and russians are sharing short videos of them eating an apple or having an apple somewhere in the video as a way to support the party’s message. I thought I would add this since I’ve found it interesting.