They’re gaining invaluable battlefield experience that NATO troops simply aren’t.

Oh, yes they are. Ukraine is in close contact with NATO countries and sharing intel. NATO countries are also buying drones in bulk right now. And developing ones that Russia will not see until they try to pick a fight with NATO.

I might have a modest proposal for you.

In Sweden that might be true. But in the UK the monarch has some vestigial power. Even though everyone assures that if he ever tried to actually use those powers they would be taken away. But it doesn’t change the fact that in the UK the monarch still has power.

Be quiet! You bloody peasant!

(Monty Python reference)

Still is. Just because you want peace, you don’t bow down to every dictator that comes along.

And yet in the polls they are still popular. Which I find baffling. The presumptive candidate for president in the second round is from the ruling right wing party.

It’s like people don’t know what they are voting for or don’t care.

But they need seemingly legitimate opposition that doesn’t really threaten them.

It doesn’t matter if the election is rigged or not. It is all about appearances. Even though everyone with a half a brain knows what’s going on.

Ah, the glory days of Usenet. How we miss you.

Even if they win the war in Ukraine their demography will be fucked. Their population pyramid was already showing serious problems from previous conflicts. And now that a million young adults have fled the country and close to half a million casualties have been accrued, the future of Russia is bleak in deed.

There’s a lot of crazy things in China that are related to this. Not just one child policy. There’s a whole crisis of sexuality in China.

As would many other interrelated things.

Can you get a mortgage? I heard it’s quite difficult in Germany?

Putin will likely try to stir shit on a non-military level (social, political, imports, etc

Because that is all he can do at the moment.