Russia fought two wars over it before successfully subduing them.
Which, if there was some magical factor in the universe that made them always win the second war, we could expect them to lose the first, right? Except there is no such magical factor.
The first loss is explainable and quite irrelevant.
To this day, there are still suspicions that there were false flag attacks where Russia killed its own citizens to bolster support for the war
So? Even if true, that doesn’t alter my point at all.
The point is (for those who need pictures drawn in crayon for them) Russia has reasons to expect that it might prevail in such a war, in a permanent way, with what their culture and regime considers to be acceptable losses.
The pretense for that war, the ethics of it, its justifiability, these things are all besides the point.
Which, if there was some magical factor in the universe that made them always win the second war, we could expect them to lose the first, right? Except there is no such magical factor.
The first loss is explainable and quite irrelevant.
So? Even if true, that doesn’t alter my point at all.
The point is (for those who need pictures drawn in crayon for them) Russia has reasons to expect that it might prevail in such a war, in a permanent way, with what their culture and regime considers to be acceptable losses.
The pretense for that war, the ethics of it, its justifiability, these things are all besides the point.