"By: South Pacific PREMIUM 3 minutes ago from: Putin Reassures Allies In Phone Calls, Erdogan Expresses 'Full Support' Against Coup by ZH
Chuckle at anyone thinking a man with 25,000 troops and no air assets poses any threat to the Russian power structure. This is one of two things;
1. A distraction & a feint to get Ukraine and the rest of the world to focus on specific areas and make poor decisions for accepting this at face value, while a new front is opened from anywhere from Belgorod to Belarus.
2. Scripted theater which will be used to further crackdown on the freedoms of the average Russian, suspending a lot of laws, and forcing more into mobilization. Quite possibly Martial law in regions.
Personally I see this as Russia's version of 9/11 used to consolidate tyrannical power at expense of the people, and also a ploy that will expose any in the rank and file not loyal to the regime. Whats more I feel confident this also the reason conflict in Ukraine was drawn out- Russia has the ability to absolutely crush Ukraine and quickly, but did not, which allowed all of its mobilized forces to be rotated through modern theater to gain valuable experience, which also burned through stockpiles of aging borderline obsolete weapons, making room for modern ones, and most importantly giving Russian industry time to scale up wartime production massively which you cannot do quickly, under legitimate guise that the sleeping West has ignored (intentionally at the highest levels). One has not seen a fraction of Russia's might nor modern weapons capability in this conflict thus far, and this move currently is one of the final pieces falling into place for much greater expanded war, a play they would not have made until the above points i mention were satisfactorily met"
Thats what I have been thinking as of late.