larry johnsone writes about the empires illusions and delusions centered on russia, its main preoccupation as long as i've been alive;

I want to flag another article that reflects a profound misunderstanding of Russia and the war in Ukraine… It is from a pundit by the name of Kamran Bokhari.

Although Bokhari appears to be a young guy who was not an adult during the cold war, he is trapped in the old style of thinking about Russia and US relations. He writes:

Trump must act decisively to show that he controls the rules of the engagement and to counter the perception that Moscow is exploiting his desire for diplomacy. Washington’s move on Wednesday to sanction Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil companies, is evidence of the administration’s sensitivity to charges of weakness….

Certainly, the war in Ukraine has shown that Russia falls well short of the military and industrial might that the Soviets possessed. After nearly four years of fighting, Moscow’s failures underscore the erosion of its conventional power and the limits of its mobilization capacity. Russia will need years to rebuild its economic base, replenish its arsenal and restore force readiness, diminishing its ability to threaten Europe in the near term. In the meantime, Russia will try to gain as much territory in eastern Ukraine as possible as it waits for Washington to continue its withdrawal from the global stage, after which it will exploit strategic opportunities in Europe as they emerge.

This strategy has a couple of problems that Moscow is all too aware of. First and more immediately, the continued rejection of Trump’s diplomatic overtures risks escalation. The US could respond by supplying additional military aid to Ukraine that could lead to real battlefield reversals. The Kremlin, for its part, recognizes how Trump’s political imperatives will influence his willingness to act decisively. As a result, there are limits to how far Russia can delay or continue to manipulate negotiations without incurring costs...........more.........