Comments by "Mats From" (@matsfrommusic) on "How Ukraine Can Overcome Putin's Russia By 2025" video.

I have always wondered why people say this war is about imperialism? Although that is true historically, we have internet and smartphones these days and that change the rules a lot. Isn't it a lot more likely that the invasion of Ukraine is about Putin wanting to keep democracy away from Russia, as that would truly be a problem for him personally? What is reasonable to sacrifice if this is just about territory and resources? If Russias losses are this crazy and I don't actually mean losses on the battlefield but everything else, any rational person would have stopped a long time ago. I mean regardless what happens Russia has lost so much they will never get back again. It doesn't make any sense to me.
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@AstroGremlinAmerican I believe that's a big part of the problem that many people in the west think Putin has got a massive ego when he’s naturally not an over confident person at all. Around the time of the Orange revolution, the overtake of power from the oligarks and the blowback from all the turmoil surrounding Kursk, Dubrovka Theater, Beslan and not least the US war on terror, I think Putin realized the power he had wasn’t all that secure. His personality change quite a bit as he probably felt he need to convince everyone including himself he's a tough guy, a strongman, hence the propaganda film he made of himself hunting wild animals shirtless. You really need to want to change the perception of yourself if you make such a film. But he had to force himself to become this person, it didn't come natural to him. I remember a US reporter also pointing out the difference in his personality too after meeting him in 2000 vs 2005. After all, he's been killing opponents since that time, and he's probably responsible for the residential buildings blowing up in 1999, I don't know but it seems to me that all of these things are good reasons in this favor, no one sacrifice this much otherwise, it has to be about something else than a silly imperialistic worldview.
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@trogdortpennypacker6160 Sure. I do think most people in the west have a somewhat sober view of Ukraine, they know corruption is still a huge problem and have lengths to go before becoming a true democracy, but the will is certainly there, I mean just look how this war started in 2014. I think Putin is deeply worried about anything that can potentially destabilize his regime and his power, whatever that looks like. The list of murdered journalists in Russia on Wikipedia alone is just unbelievable and tells you a lot. It's easy to embrace the myth of Russians being used to getting screwed (I'm not saying you have) they're special for sure but we're all humans and want the same things in life generally speaking still. I think this war have changed many Ukrainians to the core quite understandably, I don't think there's many that doubt what the Russians are capable of nor what needs to be done to stand up to them.
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