re: If Putin is victorious in Ukraine, what is his next move?

quote:

---

Russia has taken almost 2 years and 120,000+ KIA to date

---

Those KIA numbers for Russia are absurd, a credible number of KIA for Russia is just shy of 40K and over half a million for Ukraine.

quote:

---

Does he have the military strength or political power to invade Finland, Poland, and the Baltic states as people are saying?

---

Russia has the most powerful military in the world along with some of the most advanced weapons systems and unlike the West, has the industrial capacity to pump out endless armaments, so Russia could crush NATO but that’s not nor never was its objective.

We don't truly know, but the number is higher than the number of US casualties in the entire Vietnam War.

That's a huge sacrifice for a war that is supposed to be an opening gambit. At this point its hard to imagine Russia would have the intestinal fortitude to keep on knocking down dominoes if they are eventually successful in Ukraine.

quote:

---

if they are eventually successful in Ukraine.

---

Success in Ukraine would have been the occupation of Kyiv. That bird has flown.

Georgia then AZERBAIJAN via Armenia. This worries me, as the Muslim "President" of Turkey will engage to finish killing the Orthodox Christians in Armenia while protecting Azerbaijan.

Ferment a separatist movement in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan.

I mean it is a recipe he's used before: S. Ossesitia- Georgia, Donbass- ukraine.

after victory, putin's next move would be to rebuild the nord stream pipeline that biden blew up. germany would agree as they are part owners.

Addendum: It will be interesting to see who (what Religion) Putin chooses as the Mullahs in Iran will indeed seek to take down the Jewish State of Israel. That will means that the Jews cut loose with the nukes as they vow "never again" and will fulfill prophecy re "blood up to the bridle of a horse..." in the ME.

Get Jesus if that is an option. Politics ain't gonna cut it.

quote:

---

This whole thing was to push nato back and was started because NATO & US.

---

Partially true. But you’ve missed the mark.

Russia has a history of being invaded from almost every direction for millennia. They have few defense-able natural boarders. Their national psyche is paranoia. So the history of the Russian Empire and the Russian dominated USSR was to push their boarders outward in all directions to defense-able terrain. After the breakup of the USSR much of the conquered border peoples gained their independence.

They therefore fear their neighbors, and Europe and America are the most powerful of them. They have been trying to reconnect these territories back under their control through alliances or armed intervention. Two Chechen wars, invasion of Georgia, and two invasions of Ukraine are the result.

NATO was no threat to them, but because of their past history, their paranoia is their reality. Poland and other Eastern Europeans, the Baltics, and the Balkans joined NATO for defense against their past history of occupation and domination by the Russian Empire and the USSR. NATO never planned on invading Russia, because trading with Russia was lucrative and Russia has enough nukes to effectively destroy NATO. But Russian paranoia will never allow them to believe this.

So yes, Russia blames NATO intentions, but the reality is Russian paranoia not NATO intentions caused this war.

Unfortunately for Russia, even if they manage to occupy every square inch of Ukraine, they have lost this war.

Their paranoia of NATO has backfired. Their NATO border has expanded to Finland that was neutral but deferential to Russia, and Sweden that had dropped their centuries old neutrality. The explanation of NATO into Scandinavia is a devastating strategic defeat that worsened their paranoid situation overall including a potential complete victory in Ukraine.

Economically they are devastated. They have lost their lucrative trade with the West. Europe will replace their energy purchases from Russia. Western investment of capital, technology, and management is over. Putin’s nationalization of Western firms is the period at the end of this sentence. Their largest current trade partners China and India are buying fuel at a discounted rate and are forcing Russia to trade with their currencies. This is greatly pressuring the Ruble! Also this opens up a new problem as Chinese and Indian former suppliers switch their full priced products to the former customers of Russia. Russia has further lost potential arms exports due to the perceived poor performance of their weapons.

Politically, Russian prestige has crashed internationally because of their inept military performance. An alliance with them is now less valuable. Their arms are less valuable, their military power is less valuable, and their economic aid is less valuable.

Consolidate his power in Eastern Ukraine and then attempt being a shot caller in the rest of Ukraine. As far as any adventures beyond that, probably not ......ar least for 5 or 6 years.

100K dead is a big number to make up.