Comments by "Heads Full Of Eyeballs" (@HeadsFullOfEyeballs) on "Why did experts fail to predict Russia's invasion of Ukraine?" video.

I'm not any sort of expert, but I was surprised by the invasion because I thought Putin understood that he had a good thing going. I'm disappointed with him, in a sense. I thought he was more cunning and pragmatic than that (much like Mearsheimer did). He had good (lucrative) relations with the West, where governments were tolerating a significant amount of Russian espionage and propaganda on social media etc. as long as business was good. He got to nibble at smaller neighbours like Georgia and Ukraine while undermining Western democracies, with Western countries only lodging lukewarm protests. He was rich and in-demand and his power was secure. I didn't expect him to risk all of that for some nostalgic vision of national grandeur, even on the assumption that Ukraine would be a pushover.
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