Macron implored Putin to sit down and negotiate with Biden and the response was that he’d rather watch ice hockey.
In my last post I said that the aim of the ‘special military operation’ was swift regime change with minimum disruption to the dealings between the Putin mafia-state and Europe. It was to be a repeat of Putins lighting swift occupation and annexation of Crimea. Putin was betting that Europe was too deeply reliant on Russian fossil fuels to ‘die in a ditch’ over Ukraine, particularly if change was swift. He hoped they would accept the new circumstances as a fait accompli.
Putins business with Europe is actually a major motivator for his actions in firstly trying to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU and secondly for his seizing of fossil fuel producing regions of Ukraine. If you look at Russias behaviour towards not only Ukraine but other resource rich former Soviet states you will find a pattern of Russia attempting to hamstring potential rivals.
