Ukraine

 Interesting that a few short weeks ago, NATO was shaky, Biden was highly unpopular, and the GOP was loving Putin. 

With the invasion of Ukraine, NATO is now stronger than ever. Some of its members are greatly increasing their defense budgets, and some non-members are interested in joining. Much of the world has united against Russia, even countries that normally try to be neutral. 

Biden has become more popular, and most of the GOP is now anti-Putin. Putin was trying to shake the foundations of the western alliance, but instead has made them far stronger. 

Beyond that, the Russian army is struggling, while the Ukrainians are fighting harder than anyone would have expected. 

The Ukrainians are at a disadvantage, since the Russians have more and better weapons and since Russia has a far bigger army. Further, Putin has shown that he is more than willing to level entire sections of Ukraine and attack civilians. That however is almost certain to fuel an insurrection that will keep the conflict going even if the Ukrainian government falls.

It’s interesting that Putin has given conditions for ending the Russian incursion. Among them is that Ukraine remain neutral, rather than joining NATO, and that Ukraine cede Crimea to Russia. Putin may be looking for a way to gracefully end things without admitting defeat.

Russia published a list of countries hostile to it. Beyond the obvious of all the EU, plus the US, Japan, and others, they included such military, economic, and diplomatic powerhouses as Monaco, San Marino, and Liechtenstein. 

Many companies are shutting down operations in Russia, even though that will cost them money. The real shock was when Switzerland said they were freezing Russian accounts. The Swiss didn’t even try to shut down the Nazi accounts.

Now there are more Russians protesting the war in Ukraine than Americans protesting sanctions on Russia or weapons being funneled to Ukraine. Russian athletes were banned from the Paralympic Games. When the UN General Assembly voted on a censure of Russia over Ukraine, only five countries voted against it, including Russia, Belarus, and North Korea. 

It is a great tragedy for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, but it seems that Putin may not get what he had hoped out of it.