Putin

 The war in Ukraine does not really affect our local politics much, other than most Republicans running for office seem to have dropped Trump as far as foreign policy goes.

Putin is the result of 30 years of corruption. The wealth in Russia comes from a small number of industries. They apparently do not even know how to deal with the technical aspects of oil drilling without American help. Rachel Maddow covered all this in her book Blowout. Anyway, the oligarchs all got wealthy by starting with something they knew a little about. They bought state industries after the Soviet Union collapsed. Once you got some chunk of it, you kept buying in that area, still at low prices compared to the world. Eventually a small number of people got very wealthy. Russia also has mining that brings in income, such as palladium and platinum, and other metals. Uranium was largely left in Kazakhstan.

The common people got jobs in the consumer markets that thrived as money flowed into Russia. Some are in the energy industry. Russia grows some food, but the best lands are actually in Ukraine. That side improved as well, with Ukraine exporting the food to neighboring Russia.

Things were fine. Then Putin started thinking about his legacy.

One must understand that it not only Putin that feels somehow the lesser leader and his country as someone who struggles compared to all of Europe and the USA. It is all of Russia that lacks self esteem. Trump was a quirk, and Putin felt comfortable next to him. He was not a real threat. Never mind what Putin had on Trump, he felt like the stronger man.

Now past Trump, Putin is back to the old routine of puffing up his chest and feeling OK as long as he flexes his muscle sometimes. Putin can only show strength in the face of neighbors. And there was only one that used to be part of Russia for most of the 1900s. Finland had been apart longer. Therefore Ukraine was the victim this time.

So, as I said, it was not just Putin. It is all of Russia that has been lacking self esteem for 30 years. Even with all the Western goods coming in, Russians did not feel like an equal just yet. Well off people in Moscow and St Petersburg have been approaching the West as far as freedoms and democracy goes. Most of Russia has also improved manyfold as far as material wealth and standard of living goes. But Russia is still big, some 150 million people. Nationalism is the thing that keeps it together. Putin has to make a show of it to impress the masses in Russia. Thousands of men, tens of thousands of men, tanks and weapons, those are irrelevant losses. Russia thinks the same way it always has. Big sacrifices, such as seen in WWII, are necessary for their self image.

Those not completely agreeing with Putin nevertheless are going along with this because of a lack of options. No election will make a big change. Also, they lived through the Yeltsin years, 91-99, and it was unstable. Conditions were barely better than in the Soviet Union. Putin brought stability, even if most people knew of all the corruption and had to maneuver that to get consumer goods.

Putin is where he is for a reason. There is no majority to rebel at this point. And I suspect that removing Putin would end up with some guy whos seems "reasonable" but turns into Putin again in 20 years.