For a long time, I really thought Putin to be a smart man with motives beyond his own gain. That he really tries to make Russia better and works for the common person.
But after he renounced Ukraine's status as country and after I saw that many people protest in Russia and even part of his army is abandoning him, I'm not so sure anymore.
They were sent to Ukraine under false pretenses to gather information, later they found out a invasion was starting and they didn't want to attack Ukrainen people.
That's good - I was wondering if we were going to see some of that, or them just being half hearted and camping out more than fighting. I get the impression most Russians are not very keen on this venture.
This might be a weird question, but if you are American, do you think Biden is a smart man with motives beyond his own gain? Does he really try to make USA better and works for the common person?
I'm not the person you asked, but: I think Biden is in a very different situation to Putin. I think Putin's personality and personal intelligence and rationality is much more important than Biden's, since Putin personally has a whole lot more power. Putin is the dictator of a country; Biden is an elected figure head who's mostly beholden to the US's (relatively) strong institutions. As such, I think the US's actions are largely driven by somewhat rational self-interest, while Russia's actions are much more beholden to Putin personally.
Note: The US's interests are not necessarily aligned with the interest of the people in the US. Also, note: I don't necessarily think this applies to Trump; I think it applies to Biden because he probably largely plays along with the institutions which exist to preserve the US's interests, while Trump didn't.
I'm not educated on the matter, all this might be wrong. I'm just some guy on the internet who pays some attention to politics. I'm also not American, I look at both the US and Russia from the outside.
But after he renounced Ukraine's status as country and after I saw that many people protest in Russia and even part of his army is abandoning him, I'm not so sure anymore.