>>50592
>ultranationalist
I'm avoiding the word nationalist on purpose. They are patriotic, but not nationalist. It's hard to maintain nationalism on a non-self destructive manner in a multicultural society. They also came from Soviet background. Which doesn't mean they did not hate on minorities (for example they consciously excluded Turkic and Mongol minorities from the army, and it became an issue during the 80s when demographic started to shift), but it is more like the United States.
>this war is really not going well for you and it's not being fought like it should be.
And Putin is pressured to escalate, or escalate faster. He wants to freeze the conflict, which is bad news for Ukraine, but the internal pressure might force him to try decisive steps. Which is bad news for Putin.
>In such a person's mind Russia would be the greatest power on earth yet they are achieving next to nothing
Coping mechanism already exists tho, for a long time now. Like "they keep the good guy down", "they need whole NATO to tie us down".
>hese things happen with high profile figures on both sides, if they are not seen for a few days then suddenly it's assumed they are dead or arrested.
Yeah, the informational warfare.

>>50593
Yeah...