If There is a Settlement in Ukraine, Putin will be Compelled to Start a New War, Savvin Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 4 – Many commentators have suggested that if Putin succeeds in getting a settlement in Ukraine favorable to Russia, the Kremlin leader will conclude that he has a green light to launch a new military campaign somewhere else. But Dimitry Savvin says that in fact with such a settlement, Putin will be compelled to start a new war.
    The editor of Harbin, a conservative Russian portal based in Riga, says that if the war ends, Moscow will face the enormous task of rebuilding and repopulating the territories in Ukraine that it will annex, something beyond Moscow’s demographic and economic possibilities (t.me/dimitriy_savvin/4713 reposted at kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6729C1C5BFA24).
    Putin’s inability to do that will become painfully obvious to all, Savvin says; and consequently, the Kremlin leader will move in his “accustomed direction,” that is, he will start a new war somewhere else to distract attention from his own shortcomings and to justify the kind of repression he’ll need to try to make up for those.