Yeah, no. Russia’s acting like the bully (or abusive parent) who kicks your ass on the regular, now out in public with people watching, holding up a fist and then laughing at you for flinching. “Look at this p-ssy acting like I’d really hit him”, says the bully, and he knows and you know he’s going to beat your ass when no one’s watching, but to the rest of the world he has plausible deniability. The bully’s not going to beat your ass now, because people are watching and he’s afraid of consequences, but watching you flinch back makes him feel just as strong as beating you does.
That’s Russia right now. Announcing an ongoing genocide in Ukraine, moving 100k troops to the border, and then going “lol you cowards thought we were serious? Fuck you.” And then when the media cycle moves on and the world stops paying attention and Ukraine tries to go back to normal the troops will still be there waiting.
There’s a reason Trump and his supporters love Putin so much. They both confuse bullying with manliness.
Very early Reddit was full of Fark refugees complaining about Fark. It works itself out 😆