Post B2gEPvURcgPfCk6AzY by kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
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 (DIR) Post #B2gEPvURcgPfCk6AzY by kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
       2026-01-26T14:12:59.508783Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       #Russia political commentator Vladimir Pastukhov on #Putin and war:An interesting question: will Putin risk continuing without war? After all, for him, this is also like jumping into an ice hole. War is an area of maximum political comfort for him. War is a powerful political tranquilliser that shuts down the critical consciousness of the ‘aggressively passive majority.’ Without war, this majority becomes disorganised and unstable, and it becomes vulnerable to the influence of social elements that are ‘destructive’ to the regime.However, war also has disadvantages: What has happened to make us think that Putin might want to withdraw from the war? The fact is that all of the above works like clockwork only under one condition: the war is being fought successfully. And the war in Ukraine is no longer successful for Russia. And the fact that it now looks even less successful for Ukraine does not change the essence of the matter.And there’s this very nice “alchemist” analogy:All this, in my opinion, suggests that Putin is currently in a tense situation. He is carefully weighing up the risks for himself: the risk of continuing the war and the risk of ending it. Like a medieval alchemist, he is searching for a formula to end the war that will transform the manure heap of its unforeseen complications into a gold medal for the victorious hero, and if he thinks he has found it, he will take the risk.https://echofm.online/opinions/risknet-li-putin-zhit-dalshe-bez-vojny (in Russian)