Russia and Ukraine

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And -- who's going to retrain those reservists? The same guys who trained the first wave? Where are those guys right now?

I don't believe this represents any increase in Russian combat power. I believe this represents the Russians threatening a longer war in the hopes of wearing out Western support. But I think it will fail because without redirecting their doctrine and training they will simply be sending more troops into the shooting gallery -- even as the West is sending more arty, and training Ukrainians to fly F-16s, and now pondering the supply of older Abrams tanks.

In short, it's a move borne out of both fear and optics. It's also a big gamble in that the protests will widen and Putin's popularity will wane further. In essence, I think Putin is staking his regime on this war with this move. I think it's throwing good money after bad. He's scared and feeling cornered.

You can call up a million reservists, but it doesn’t help much when you can’t train or supply them.

Boru