Europe

Men who are still alive

Oh no... Putin found Dunharrow. Being alive isn't needed.

If only they had an asset in the US who could provide those.

Why produce when you can kidnap and pressgang from Ukraine?

This is specifically why France developed their nuclear arsenal under De Gaulle.

De Gaulle believed that the Americans could not be trusted to defend Europe, he was afraid that if the Russians would attack Europe with nuclear weapons the US would not defend us.

America is already out of the question and I think most politicians in Europe are finally seeing that. But the problem runs much deeper still. With the US out of the picture, will Madrid declare war on Russia if they send little green men to a border village in Latvia?

Danzig or war situation.

I really hope our politicians are not THAT dumb..... Hope is what we have

But with Trump on his side, he might make some progress.

They’ll make it ✨ inconvenient✨ for people.

Sabotaging water sources (already practiced this in Finland), power stations (happened in Sweden), cutting undersea cables.

Way too many people are willing to let other people die rather than be inconvenienced.

Clearly, Putin underestimated Ukraine at the beginning of his invasion. But Russia can maintain the war against Ukraine for a long time to come.

Putin has no other choice: the entire Russian economy is dependent on war and armaments and would collapse if peace were concluded. Putin could no longer control his country without an external enemy.

Hence his narrative of the "Nazis" who must be fought in Ukraine (and soon on other borders (see Suwalki Gap)). This narrative of the Nazis ties in with the russian history of the Great Patriotic War, and this resonates with the Russian population. Putin is building a sequel to WWII, with renewed external threats, and the people are receptive to that.

Therefore, Putin is not at all interested in a peace treaty. And the conflict with NATO countries has already begun: the severed power cables and data cables in the Baltic Sea and the attacks on our information systems should have been regarded as acts of war from their beginning. The threat is there NOW. And Europe and NATO must build up strength.

Presidents have access to the best medical resources, and Putin seems to be in fine shape. He could live 10 more years. I'm saying that in the hope of a pleasant surprise.

His replacement is going to have to do something big to legitimize their rule

They're already quite successful in hybrid warfare against NATO and EU.

Probing NATO's security guarantees doesn't mean taking it on fully. It means testing out how far you can go without them fully committing with military.

There’s this old saying that goes something like: "The European Airforce could beat Russia any day of the week - as long as they don’t have to do it the next week as well."

Meaning, the most pressing problem are our ammunition stockpiles. If you research that you’ll quickly see how bad the situation is in the EU currently. The Bundeswehr could, according to top generals, not stay in a fight for more than one or two weeks before running out of artillery shells, missiles and bombs.

Then there’s also the issue of lacking infrastructure, the absence of a unified command structure in Europe and with the withdrawal of the US, also a lack of strategic capabilities (awacs, satellite data, military intelligence, air tankers, heavy lift helicopters, …).