This is a very brief diary with a couple of simple questions:
Many Republicans and right-of-center US media figures have expressed a lot of admiration for Putin and sympathy for his rhetoric and approach to the world. Did their cozying up to Russia lead Putin to believe the West would be weak and divided in response to his Ukraine invasion?
Would Putin have held back the invasion of Ukraine if he had assessed the severity of Western economic and policy responses to his invasion more accurately?
I sometimes have my problems with the Democratic Party, but at least they are totally intolerant of Russian propaganda and aggression. I hope the Democrats make this an issue in the coming elections (2022 and 2024), because the political right in the US may well have encouraged Putin’s awful actions.