this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2026
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[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 104 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Imagine making the decision of sacrificing hundreds of thousands of additional lives to delay your own inevitable demise caused by your own astronomical fuck up.

Putin is a cowardly bitch.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Honestly it need not even be his demise. There are any number of countries he could flee to, countries without extradition treaties and willing to look the other way for any rich despot looking for a safe harbor. Some small Middle East dictatorship seems a logical choice. But even China would probably offer him refuge. Even North Korea if he's truly desperate. Hell, if he offered to end the war tomorrow, most Western countries would probably be willing to offer Putin amnesty, as painful as that would be. If the choice is between holding Putin accountable and saving another hundred thousand innocent lives, I'll let Putin go.

What he is truly afraid of is losing power. He can keep his life. He can keep at least a lot of his wealth. The one thing he can't flee the country with is his power.

In the modern world, dictators never need fear their personal survival. International pariah dictators all support each other. There's a reason Trump cozies up to despots. The dictators all realize that any of them could be deposed, and that losing power will result flight or death. They're all paranoid and afraid of losing power and their lives. So they all backstop each other and provide what assistance they can. And what even the poorest dictator can offer is protection from extradition.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I don't think you're correct. They may not have extradition treaties, but they also don't want to negatively affect relations with the successor for nothing in return. They aren't going to defend Putin, because most of the world, and especially the Russian successor, would be after him. There's just no benefit. They may not extradite, but they won't host him either (outside of a prison). He'd likely either be held in captivity or executed, if he isn't extradited, or let The Hague take care of him.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago

No self respecting western country would take him The russians would kill him if he went to the US. Whoever takes over will decide if he is returned from an ally. Stalin had much tighter control and he couldnt leave office because of te same fears. He would give up the power if it meant he wouldnt die immediately. They would hang every failure on him, publicly trial him and sentence him the rest of his natural life in a camp.

[–] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Imagine blindly following such an asshole and allowing your own fathers, sons, brothers to blindly become part of the meat grinder because you're too ignorant to fucking rise up and get rid of this dipshit.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We're still talking Putin right? Not Trump's Iran debacle? I suppose it's technically not a meat grinder... yet... we'll see what he does after the midterms.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 7 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

As much as I hate Trump, he's got nothing on Putin yet. A few dozen American soldiers have died at most, and many suffered, but it's nothing like what's happening with Russian soldiers and infrastructure. People are not being drafted yet either. He's cost a lot of money, but there's not hundreds of thousands of men dying in an invasion.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

I did say "yet." Give it time. We all see it coming. Do you?

[–] realitista@lemmus.org 1 points 1 day ago

..delay by less than a year