Listening to Zeihan is a bit of a guilty pleasure. The guys talks about very serious topics with the affection and language of a contender in a reality dating show. I get how casually listening to him, you may get the impression of a balanced thoughtful opinion, but Zeihan is anything but that.
Man NonCredibleDiplomacy had a strong Zeihan phase going on for a while like a year back or so. Navigable rivers :D General Xi has killed the messenger so many times :D Doom and Gloom™ :D
Zeihan mister "linear extrapolation with no adaption over decades". So i guess you are an expert in everything too.
ps. well it could be because Putin decided to do so and noone will ever really know what happened in that head or what information he was presented at the time
Putin did it because he's an abusive dickwad who thinks it's his god-given right to control Ukraine. That's it. That's the entire explanation.
People keep trying to rationalize his actions, come up with some more respectable reason, because there's no way this much death and suffering could be happening because one guy is an entitled, controlling piece of shit, right?
But in reality, that's how fascism always works. It's always been how it works. Why'd the Nazis invade Europe? Because they were entitled, controlling pieces of shit. Why'd the Soviet Union refuse to let the countries they liberated after WWII go? Because they were entitled, controlling pieces of shit. Why does China want to annex Taiwan? Because Xi's an entitled, controlling piece of shit.
Well thank you i really dont give a f*ck what you think the explanation is. You see my entire point is that you cannot know because you do not have access to his thoughts and frankly i dont care. It seems you are the same quality of person as Zaihnan someone that proclaims stuff with a tone of authority just expecting others to swollow your crap without reason.
There are many complex cultural and economical aspects which none of amount for any reason for any sane person. But in that way the complexity is inherently linked to Kremlins unique brainworms and natural stupidity.
It would have been similarly insanely stupid to attack Finland, or Japan, or North Korea. So to draw distinctions to those, trying to understand the biology of Russian brainworms is relevant to the conflict. But no explanation will change the fact Russian decisions are made based on poverty and stupidity.