0a3feeb

Aleksandr Dugin's work is the philosophical/ideological cover for whatever Putin's doing. The gist is to create a conservative Eurasian state/alliance to combat Western liberalism.

Azov are ideological extremists but I wouldn't read much into it being a motivator for Putin. It's a combination of imperialism, a significant population of ethnic Russian separatists being in Ukraine, and NATO concerns.

The Ukrainian government deputized ideological extremists to retake/hold territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

I'll concede to your comparison to a US militia when some state like Florida leaves the union and the US has to arm some QAnon loons to take it back.

Ukraine won't exist in 48 hours; the fact that the Azov battalion exists should be an indicator that very few will fight for the government.

I think it's more accurate to see the government's primary function as deciding who gets what sinecure, not accomplishing things. I would wager that's the historical norm.

Your list of failures, among others (homeless industrial complex), make much more sense through this light: they're all wealth transfers to political friends.

the competition for NSO within the US would be traditional defense contractors: raytheon, l3harris, etc.

One can make much more money with the DoD than the DoJ.