I’ve had some recent correspondence from a friend in Georgia (the former Soviet Republic, not the home of the Bulldogs) who had some interesting observations on how Russians have reacted to the war and how it has affected Georgia.
Putin’s aggression against former Soviet Republics traces back to Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia. Russian troops still occupy parts of Georgia, which likely gave Putin confidence for his successful invasion of Crimea in 2014, which in turn set the stage for his invasion of Ukraine. Putin saw that nobody stopped those earlier invasions, leading him to be overconfident about this one.
The Ukraine
