this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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[–] redditmademedoit@piefed.zip 53 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Consider that Russia has been failing to take over a neighboring country for several years now, for incomprehensible reasons, displaying immense incompetence on every level along the way. It is inherently very unlikely that Russia simultaneously has masterminded the entire fabric of the US and effectively taken over the country through sheer genius.

No doubt that Trump is playing right into Putin's hands, but Putin is also an idiot: not omnipotent.

I think it's more worth considering that the MAGA doomsday cult has a lot of interests that align with Russia, e.g. shifting U.S focus to the Western Hemisphere for resource dominance, as suggested by Aslı Bâli in the latest episode of The Dig (https://thedigradio.com/podcast/maga-empire-w-asli-bali-and-greg-grandin/).

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Putin is an intelligence operative, it does not seems unlikely that a country headed by one for decades would do well clandestine operations and falter in war.

American oligarchs are also greedy, base and overall pretty stupid so I think you overestimate the challenge of manipulating them.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

While we can agree Russia has been failing as their initial unsuccessful strategy was to take Kiev in one fell swoop, it's fairly widely agreed upon among Western intelligence agencies that their current strategy is a grinding war of attrition. So we shouldnt perceive them going slow as a sign of weakness. It's their strategy. Whether it's a viable strategy time will tell but it's clear they don't care if they have to put hundreds of thousands in the meat grinder or if it takes a decade, as long as they eventually achieve their goal. Part of their calculus is that democracies are inherently not as good at long term planning as autocracies.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

I wouldn't go as far as to call Putin an idiot. Unlike Trump, he's an effective head of state (note I didn't say leader), and while he seems incompetent when it comes to Ukraine or to managing Russia, don't forget that neither are his end goal - he's ready to sacrifice most of Russia just to cleave a bit more off of Europe for himself, and the invasion of Ukraine is actually helping him: while he may be losing soldiers and equipment at an alarming rate, he's got his buddies Xi and Kim providing him more and more for the war efforts, which in turn is creating division in Europe and NATO, while also depleting their resources.

Besides, it's been proven time and again how effective Russian troll farms are at disseminating disinformation and stoking internal tensions of any one grouping, let it be the US, or any European country. Even if Putin was an idiot in other areas, this part is undeniably true.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The great conspiracy plot: real Putin died more than a decade ago. Now his duplicates are acting as symbol puppets in hands of the Russian government. So, it is not just 1 idiot but rather a lot of them.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What Russian government? Putin IS the government. He's the only irreplaceable thing in the Russian state.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He is an official mascot of the government. The real government are the ones using this mascot. The ones in shadow pulling by the threads.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That might be true for Trump but hardly applicable to Putin.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trump is a mad man who for some reasons fulfills the plans of a shadow World government on creating world chaos and accelerating changes. I even started to think that both Putin(whoever acts as him since original is dead) and Trump are simple actors who do what they are being told. Because of both of their actions have the same comical stupidity but similar patterns.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wow. You're incredibly wrong, and/or blind.

Trump is in the pockets of the 0.00001%, the billionaire corporatist elite, that's been obvious since the beginning. Hell, go and read about how the elite of New York viewed him, and it will all make sense - he's a useful puppet and in return he gets to be part of the big boy club.

Putin on the other hand... The man is anything but an idiot. You don't survive and raise through the ranks of the KGB and FSB and then rule a country for 26+ years by being an idiot. His most recent steps might seem... less than ideal, but they're hardly dumb steps. Attacking Ukraine, even with the war stretching now nearly 4 years, is a brilliant way of keeping Europe distracted AND divided (especially with the disinfo campaign going on, a good chunk of European population actually sides with Russia and/or disagrees with the support provided to Ukraine, heightening tensions locally and across Europe), resources tied down, and disrupting trust in governments (look how the rushed energy independence move caused energy prices to skyrocket in the middle of an economic slump, angering people against their governments). Again, Putin cares not for the Russian people, because he's a dictator. To him, the people are just a resource to use, as they'd still be too sheepish to rebel and kick him off. Last few times the Russian people stepped up, their movements were immediately co-opted by authoritarians and caused more damage than the previous oppressive regime, this would make anyone more cautious.

Simply said, it might seem stupid but Putin is playing the long game and he's most definitely isn't in someone else's pocket.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I said this is a conspiracy plot. So your response is not relatable. Don't state that someone is wrong if he specified that his point of view is a conspiracy plot. Learn to be more attentive. From my side I apologize for wrong using of terms. I meant the conspiracy theory, not plot. Forgot that these 2 have different meanings.