Russia has mobilized. What happens now?

[Michie]

Putin will need to tread carefully in sending men from safe lives in Russia to the trenches in Ukraine.


Vladimir Putin has gone nuclear.

Admittedly, things have not been going well. Kyiv’s counter-offensive has retaken thousands of kilometers of Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine; Moscow’s troops have fled the front lines; dissent from previously loyal pundits has increased; and criticism (oblique though it may be) has even emanated from his pals in Beijing and New Delhi.

Faced with the prospect of a humiliating climb-down, the Russian president on Wednesday sought to escalate the war by announcing a partial mobilization of Russia’s reservists, and threatened Ukraine and its allies with atomic annihilation. At the very least, that’s an open admission that things have been going very badly and, for all his bravura, Putin will now need to tread carefully in sending men from safe lives in Russia to go and die in trenches in Ukraine.

Continued below.
Russia has mobilized. What happens now?

 

[Petros2015]

Now the army decides if it's easier to take Ukraine or Moscow.

 

[Wolseley]

He has to realize that if he's actually stupid enough to launch a nuclear weapon, NATO will reduce Moscow to a pile of radioactive cinders.

Of course, if, at this point, he's as crazy as Hitler was when the Soviets were reducing Berlin to rubble, he might decide to go ahead and launch......Die Gotterdammerung, and all that. But I hope it doesn't come to that.