“Putin continues to believe that Russia is under threat and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better-equipped military will convey that opinion to Western and domestic audiences,” Director of U.S. National Intelligence Avril Haines said.

  • @Carrolade
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    629 days ago

    Eh. That’s what he says. What he thinks inside his own head is privy only to him, not any of his inner circle or US intelligence. I have a feeling what he actually thinks is “If I can pull this off, I could be better than Catherine the Great. Maybe they could call me Putin the Amazing”.

    • @Whirling_Ashandarei
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      429 days ago

      They usually go with first names with “the” titles. So he’d be going for Vlad the… (Or Volo I guess in actual Russian).

      But I still think he’s closer to Vlad the Impotent than Vlad the Impaler as far as getting remembered.