One unsettling thought is that Putin intentionally did this, and realized that this would happen -- and doesn't care.

The other unsettling thought is that China might be able to prop them up through this. Us disconnecting Russia is a massive opportunity for them. China even abstained from voting on the world stage when everyone was condemning Russia's actions.

So it's possible that external forces are giving Putin a picture of, "go through with this, and we'll come out of it strong together."

Reference: https://jamestown.org/program/chinas-voting-behavior-in-the-...

It was secured after hours of negotiations between the Chinese and the US.

https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-vetoes-un-security-acti...

https://www.reuters.com/world/russias-ukraine-attack-forces-...

Wondering when a Russian oligarch says “you know what I think we’d be better off without this guy alive.” Putin, not George Lucas.

And I think that Putin has clearly demonstrated how much more powerful the state is than the oligarchs (anywhere, not just Russia). Look up what happened to oligarchs who opposed Putin. See, e.g., https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Khodorkovsky

I get that doesn't fly in an totalitarian state, but it seems like a far-cry from being an outright revolutionary like a Navalny. Man's got an interesting perspective from which to tweet about this whole mess (wish Twitter had an auto-translate feature rather than clickityclicking one by one).

Pearls before swine. The prequels were a work of art, expanding and deepening the meaning of the originals.