For context … in the 20+ years the US fought in Afghanistan, and the 8 in Iraq, 5400 dead.
Less than 60k total casualties.
I am so sad to see the lives lost. Russia is a failed state ran by a handful of dictators who have no problem treating their own army as completely expendable and the Russian people too terrified to stand against it, unless they become another easy expense.
The Russian government would commit a genocide against its own people to commit a genocide elsewhere.
I talked with many Russians. Most of the elite is xenophobic and chauvinistic, behind a thin cultured veneer. This attitude evolved due to Russia evolving as an empire, and is deeply embedded by centuries of conditioning.
This happens in any empire - some Greeks, Italians, Serbians, etc. still have remnants of imperial arrogance, despite their empires long gone.
Putin rose in popularity when he suppressed and slaughtered the rebellious colony of Chechnya. However likeable individual Russians are, the “imperial boomerang” will hit them again and again, unless their ideal of mighty empire is finally humbled. They are going to suppress other countries, since this is the very nature of an empire.
