Putin ignoring generals, making war decisions solo, analysts say
Putin ignoring generals, making war decisions solo, analysts say
Putin is making "little use of economic or military expertise" while making key decisions on the war in Ukraine, a think tank assessed.
Putin is largely ignoring the expertise of his military advisors, US analysts said in a report. Instead, he is making most of the key decisions on his own, they said. The experts at the RAND Corporation said Putin has proved more cautious than many expected. Russian President Vladimir Putin is making key decisions about the Ukraine war largely on his own, without input from his generals, analysts said in a report published last week.
But while doing so, Putin has proven to be more cautious than expected, said the report from the US-based RAND Corporation.
"Putin [is] making key decisions largely on his own without substantial influence from the Russian General Staff," the analysts said in the report.
RAND said that was simply because Putin does not trust those around him — and so makes "little use of economic or military expertise" at his disposal.
This worked famously well for Hitler in WWII. Maybe we can just fast forward to the part where he suicides in a bunker?
Having the guy who basically ran messages between trenches in the Great War calling all the shots can't possibly fail, so I'm assuming you're speaking ironically and Germany won, right?
I mean, of course he is speaking ironically. Hitler famously bypassed his generals more sound ideas on how to proceed with the Soviet Union and instead for vital strategic locations he went for the prestige objects.
I suppose in retrospective we gotta be glad that he did. Germany still wouldn't have won, but it might have taken longer and every day more of that war was more dead and maimed on both sides.
Never go full Hitler...
I mean, never go part Hitler either. But definitely don't go full Hitler.
Nah he can go full Hitler. Still waiting for him to pick up the pistol.
It's ironic, he made this situation where his generals are all completely useless because the entire structure is designed to promote loyalty to him rather than competence.
It's actually rational to try and do it himself when the calibre of generals he has are Shoigu and Surovkhin.
He must have been doing this the whole time right? Otherwise how could they be doing so poorly?
I've been assuming Putin's been calling the shots all by himself in terms of military movements this entire time.
Honestly, I think corruption is at fault for the initial mess and Putin trusting too much of what the numbers say. Russia had a decent military budget, they should've done better than they did. What I think happened was that the budget dwindled as people on all levels were skimming away little bits for their own pockets until only fragments arrived where the money was supposed to go. Everyone cleaning up their numbers bottom up and thus Russia had a solid military on their papers while things were falling apart at the bottom.
Oh, this makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Corruption and vranyo
When you surround yourself with yes-men, then what's the difference?
Truth
When you make your subordinates so scared to voice an opinion that is not an agreement with yours that they become yes men or fall out of a window, you essentially are running the thing by yourself the whole time.
Never interfere with the enemy while he is in the process of making a mistake.
- Sun Zu
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Sounds like his generals should facilitate a regime change, and put someone competent in charge.
Careful what you wish for. The generals are horny for war too and they just might be less shit at war than Putler is.
Advancement in Russia is loyalty based, not merit based. Anybody who says the mobiks aren't getting the equipment or training they need gets removed/disappeared. A lot of military command does nothing on purpose so they just get shuffled around to a different position rather than excel/fail and put a bullseye on their backs.
They are all yes men without a spine selected by pooptin exactly for those qualities
I agree, but it's not so easy considering the last guy who tried this had his support vanish when Putin threatened the families of the insurrectionists, then blew his plane up.
The generals lack the necessary imagination. Each one can only imagine his own glorious reign and cannot imagine another person ever doing the same. So when something happens to Putin, they can only fight to the death among themselves and their followers. It is what happened in the minds of the most competent generals of Alexander the Great, Leonidas and Genghis Khan. Their nations, relatively law-abiding, stable and prosperous, reverted to (old and familiar) blood soaked chaos within a few years. It will happen again.
Considering he was a paper-pusher flunky with negligible tactical military experience, this is great news for Ukraine.
Really cosplaying Nicholas II here
Doesn't this play into the hands of Ukraine? An non-expert making decisions instead of experts seems like recipe for a grand fuck up.
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This is why their attrition is so bad even though they're on the defensive.
Napoleon would like a word.
Oh, the dude who spent his entire career in the army and fought multiple wars before becoming a commander/general is equal to Putin who never fought a war?
Napoleon came up through the ranks. He also took pretty good care of his soldiers and disdained favoritism.
Whatever nuclear weapons, that haven't been pillaged for fuel, uranium, and scrap, are probably so poorly built and maintained that Putin is likely worried about accidentally nuking Russia.
Their nukes are fine. Unfortunately. The US made periodic inspections on them, as the Russians did to the ones US has. I belive it was a part of the new start treaty.
The inspections were purely a stock take. Missile 1990-cccp-100 still in silo 123 in Buttfuck Siberia. Tick.
Looking at a missile from 25m away will not tell you if the tritium has deteriorated past usability, now will it tell you if the electronics have failed or components corroded past usability.
The closest to an inspection done is that one treaty (there are several arms limitations treaties USSR & USA signed which Russia continued, plus ones signed by Russia post USSR) limits the number of warheads in total that multi launch vehicles can have, so they get to see the warhead rather than just a missile.
The warheads could be full of cotton candy as far as the inspectors know though, again, count devices, check against list.
NO american is testing the functionality or capability of these weapons.
Even if you doubt me (and I can dig out sources) here's a thought experiment:
Would the US sign a treaty that allowed Russian engineers to dissassemble and test the functionality of a US nuke ?
If you think they would I have a nice one owner bridge going cheap.
Yes but also recognize the military is below oligarchs and the local mafias in power. They regularly extort money from them and, sadly, rape them too. Being in the russian army is just ditch-digger with uniforms.
In part because a powerful military is a threat to Pooty-poot. Anyone who’s competent has to act otherwise to get promoted, and competent-and-famous military men are inevitably suicided for the same reason. Corruption, as it turns out, is bad.
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